The robots helping NHS surgeons perform better, faster – and for longer

Surgical robots such as Versius cut training time down from 80 sessions to 30 minutes

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It is the most exacting of surgical skills: tying a knot deep inside a patient's abdomen, pivoting long graspers through keyhole incisions with no direct view of the thread.

Trainee surgeons typically require 60 to 80 hours of practice, but in a mock-up operating theatre outside Cambridge, a non-medic with just a few hours of experience is expertly wielding a hook-shaped needle - in this case stitching a square of pink sponge rather than an artery or appendix.