Guy's Hospital chosen to broadcast live surgery to major health event

The urology team at Guy’s Hospital will be watched by 14,000 urologists from around the globe when they broadcast 14 operations live to the largest urology meeting in the world this weekend.

Guy’s has been chosen as the only centre to show the cases as they happen to EAU17, the annual European Association of Urology Congress, will be held. It is the first time in nearly 30 years that the event, which takes place at the ExCeL London from today (Friday 24 March) until Tuesday 28 March, will be hosted in the capital. The live surgery will be carried out tomorrow and on Sunday.

The surgery will include a range of urological procedures, including robotic-assisted operations, techniques to remove kidney stones, laser and keyhole surgery. Patients will be operated on by three consultant urological surgeons from Guy’s – Mr Ben Challacombe, Mr Rick Popert and Mr Matthew Bultitude – as well as 14 visiting surgeons who are also world leaders. The visiting experts will operate in conjunction with the hospital’s urology team.

Mr Challacombe, who is coordinating the live surgery, said: “It is a huge honour for the urology team at Guy’s to be invited to host the live procedures for this significant medical event.

“This will be a great opportunity to showcase our expertise to the thousands of urologists at the Congress, and it will be fantastic to work with some of the world leaders in urological surgery at Guy’s.”

Viapath, the company that provides pathology services to Guy’s and St Thomas’, will work closely with the Trust’s occupational health service to make the live cases involving the visiting surgeons possible. The teams will ensure that the visiting surgeons have gone through the same screening process as surgeons working at Guy’s and St Thomas’ but within a very short timeframe, to enable them to carry out the procedures safely and on time.