Mr Thomas Routledge attended medical schools at Cambridge and then Oxford Universities, where he won scholarships in medical science. His surgical training was in Cambridge , London and New York. He was appointed as a Consultant in Thoracic Surgery at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals in 2007, where he is Chief of Thoracic Surgery.  He is currently the senior thoracic surgeon at HCA London Bridge and helps led their lung cancer multi disciplinary team.

He has been at the forefront of developing minimally in robotic minimally invasive surgery working as an advisor and technology developer with Intuitive Surgical and the DaVinci robotic system. He has developed techniques that allow the majority of his patients to benefit from this more precise and also gentler way of doing surgery, widening the applicability of this technology to a wide range of situations and conditions. Whilst technical surgical excellence is the heart of his approach, Mr Routledge is very much focused on patient experience and support for patients families during the challenging time that surrounds any surgical treatment, and has built a team at London Bridge Hospital and across HCA London to achieve this.

Mr Routledge continues to be a key opinion leader in robotic thoracic surgery across Europe and the UK, having developed many of the core techniques and trained many other senior surgeons.  His personal experience and expertise thus exceed many other surgeons ion this field, especially in the treatment of tumours, cancerous and otherwise.   

A recent significant advance in the treatments he offers is surgery using the Intuitive Da Vinci SP (Single Port) robotic platform https://www.intuitive.com/en-us/products-and-services/da-vinci/sp.  This is a treatment unique in the UK currently to HCA London Bridge Hospital, and Mr Routledge’s surgical practice. It allows robotic surgery through a 3cm incision underneath the rib cage, rather than several incisions in between the ribs.  Quite simply this allows high complexity thoracic surgery to be carried out with a dramatic reduction in the discomfort that follows, and potentially a much more rapid return to full physical activity, and is a dramatic step forwards benefitting patients through surgical technology and technique. We are proud to be World leaders in bringing this innovation to HCA patients.

Diseases, Medical Tests and Treatments

• Surgical treatment of tumours of the lungs, thymus and mediastinum, chest wall
• Pulmonary lobectomy and segmentectomy
• Multi disciplinary lung cancer treatment
• Robotic sympathectomy for hyperhidrosis (including highly selective sympathectomy)
• Thoracic outlet syndrome and robotic 1st rib resection
• Pneumothorax surgery 
• Novel techniques for chest wall and rib cage surgical repair - spot-traumatic, rib fractures
• Surgical treatment for endometriosis in the chest - robotic