Cut Out Cancer is raising money to buy high-tech and robotic surgical equipment for Royal Surrey's new cancer centre that covers Surrey, Sussex and beyond.  The new facilities will revolutionise cancer surgery in the area, allowing more accurate and complex surgeries to take place, reducing waiting times and speeding up the recovery process. 

Our campaign is funding state-of-the-art specialist equipment for the new building, including a fourth surgical robot for the hospital and specialist surgical tables that move with the robot. With your help, the new facility can become one of Europe’s leading surgical centres, meeting the needs of our growing patient population for years to come.

About Royal Surrey

Royal Surrey County Hospital (RSCH) in Guildford is the regional cancer centre for Surrey, Sussex and beyond, covering around 3 million people. It is the fourth largest cancer centre in the UK with world-leading expertise across all of the major specialities and a long-standing reputation for innovation and improvement.

However, the surgical facilities are over 50 years old and do not provide enough theatre capacity to meet current demand, let alone the expected increase arising from an ageing population. NHS England are funding a £41 million expansion and redesign of the surgical facilities, which will mean 7,000 more operations can take place each year (a 35% increase). Building work began in February 2024 and is due to complete in the winter of 2025.

Why we need your support

The public funding will not cover the costs of the high-tech equipment required to kit out the new centre.  The hospital has drawn up a menu of items. These range from £7,000 smaller items of specialist equipment that enable more precise surgery to be carried out, through £95,000 specialist surgical tables that position the patient quickly and correctly, right the way up to an additional £2.2 million surgical robot.

The hospital currently has three robots. The precision these offer significantly reduces the invasiveness of the procedures, enabling patients to recover faster and leaving them with considerably less scarring than is the case from conventional operations. With public funding and hospital bed space at a premium, the shorter timeframes for each operation and for post-operative recovery have a major impact on reducing waiting lists for people and improving their chances of recovery.

The improved facilities will also encourage more world-leading surgeons to work at the hospital, resulting in further improvements to patient outcomes, better knowledge-sharing and training, and the development of improved surgical techniques.

Working in partnership

Rotary clubs across Surrey and Sussex have formed a partnership with the Royal Surrey Charity to raise funds to purchase the high-tech equipment needed at the expanded surgical facilites at the hospital – the Cut Out Cancer campaign. We are calling on the local community to back the campaign, which will help transform cancer care in Surrey and the South East. If you would like more information or to get involved, please email us at [email protected] 

Dr Bill Jewsbury, Medical Director of the Royal Surrey, said: “It is wonderful when the hospital and the community can work together in this way and to make sure the RSCH continues on its success path. Thank you for the Rotary Club's support, what a boost it will be for the Hospital.”