The “Rolls-Royce” of surgery has arrived in the North – thanks to you!

Thanks to the incredible generosity of our community, Northern Hospital Epping is now home to a $2.5 million robotic-assisted surgical platform – a groundbreaking innovation that is already changing lives.  

Dubbed the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of surgery, the da Vinci Xi Robotic Surgical System enhances the skill and precision of our brilliant surgeons. For patients, this means fewer complications, shorter hospital stays, and a quicker return to daily life. Rex is just one of our Northern locals who has benefitted from this cutting-edge technology. 

Thrown into a world of uncertainty and tests, Rex was diagnosed with prostate cancer at 69 years old. “It was a nasty cancer,” Rex said. “They thought it had spread.” 

 Fortunately, Rex was a candidate for robotic surgery – giving his surgical team a highly precise, minimally invasive way to remove his prostate.  

The result for Rex was astonishing. After traditional surgery, Rex would have stayed in hospital for almost a week to recover. With the help of robotic surgery, he went home the very next day. Rex has had other major surgeries in his life, but he says this was different. “I’ve had two open-heart surgeries,” he told us. “But what I’m looking at now... it just goes to another level.

At a public health system, it’s remarkable.” Northern Health Divisional Director of Surgery, Dennis Gyomber, sees the real-life impact of this technology every single day. “For me, this robot is about one thing: equity,” Gyomber says. “For years, if patients in the North wanted robotic surgery, they had to bypass our hospital and go elsewhere. That is not something we can accept.

We must be able to service the needs of our local community.” Rex is thriving thanks to innovative robotic surgery For Rex, access to this technology meant a more precise surgery, close to home – which meant he avoided months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

At Northern Health, we believe our community deserves access to the very best in healthcare. But with government funding only going so far, innovations like this are only possible with the support of people like you.

From individual donors and corporate partners to everyone who generously supported our Gala Ball in May, thank you for helping bring the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of surgery to the North – and giving more local patients like Rex access to world-class care.