Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow has become the first dedicated children's hospital in the world to own and operate a surgical robot exclusively for pediatric patients, with more than 30 operations already completed using the system as of November 8.
The hospital's Versius Plus robot, made by Cambridge-based CMR Surgical, is being used for minimally invasive keyhole surgery on cancer, urology, abdominal, thoracic and gastrointestinal cases, including procedures on babies as young as six weeks old. The program is funded by a donation of more than £1.5 million from the Coldstones Charitable Trust to Hi Scotland, the innovation arm of Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity, according to STV News.
Why pediatric robotic surgery lagged behind adult care
Robotic surgery platforms have been standard in adult hospitals for years, but pediatric adoption has moved slowly because children's anatomy leaves far less room to work. Smaller abdominal cavities and more delicate tissue make it harder to fit robotic arms and instruments designed around adult-sized patients, and most hospitals that do offer pediatric robotic procedures share a system with adult surgical units rather than running a dedicated pediatric program.
Glasgow's approach is different: the Versius Plus system was bought specifically for children's cases rather than borrowed from an adult operating theater on a shared schedule. Consultant paediatric surgeon Michael Jacovides said the main advantage is extending keyhole surgery's benefits — less pain, shorter hospital stays, reduced need for open surgery — to more young patients than a shared system would allow. Paediatric urologist Martin Flett said the robot's 3D visualization improves depth perception and accuracy, and that the surgical team trained extensively on simulators before operating on patients.
What it signals for the surgical robotics market
CMR Surgical has spent the past several years positioning Versius as a more compact, modular alternative to Intuitive Surgical's dominant da Vinci platform, emphasizing portability between operating rooms as a selling point. A dedicated pediatric deployment gives CMR a reference site that larger, bulkier systems have struggled to match, since compactness matters more in pediatric surgery than almost any other specialty.
It also points to where funding for expensive robotic programs increasingly comes from outside hospitals' own capital budgets. The Coldstones donation is described as the largest single gift Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity has received, underscoring how philanthropic funding — rather than hospital procurement budgets — is becoming a primary route for introducing surgical robotics into specialties, like pediatrics, where the clinical case is strong but patient volume doesn't always justify the capital cost on its own.
Dr Katriona Brooksbank, regional head of innovation at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which supported the program's clinical governance and evaluation, called it an example of "innovation, philanthropy, clinical leadership and industry collaboration" coming together. Hospital officials say they expect the program to influence how other children's hospitals approach robotic surgery investment going forward.