A government hospital in Hyderabad has quietly rewritten what public healthcare can look like in India. The Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) has crossed 1,000 robotic-assisted surgeries in under three years — and over 90% of those procedures were delivered free of cost. On Monday, 3 August 2026, the Chief Minister's Office of Telangana announced that Chief Minister Sri Revanth Anumula has congratulated NIMS on reaching this milestone, calling it 'a transformative moment in public healthcare.'

590 urology cases, 248 gastroenterology, 162 oncology — the numbers behind the milestone

The 1,000 surgeries were not concentrated in a single department. 590 procedures were performed by the Department of Urology, 248 by Surgical Gastroenterology, and 162 by Surgical Oncology — spanning complex urological, gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, pancreatic, colorectal, gynecological, and oncological cases. That breadth matters: it signals institutional depth, not a single-specialty showcase.

The CM specifically commended Dr. Rahul Devraj, Director of NIMS and Robotic Surgery Coordinator, along with the departments of Anaesthesiology, Nursing Services, and Operation Theatre staff. The achievement, the CM noted, reflects 'unwavering pursuit of excellence, innovation, and equitable healthcare delivery.'

Aarogyasri and the CM's Relief Fund: how the free surgeries were funded

The statistic that anchors the story is the 90%-plus free-of-cost rate. The funding pipeline runs through two channels: Aarogyasri — the state health insurance scheme that has covered catastrophic illnesses for below-poverty-line families since 2007, first in undivided Andhra Pradesh and then carried forward by Telangana after the 2014 bifurcation — and the Chief Minister's Relief Fund (CMRF). Together, they converted what is typically a premium private-hospital procedure into a routine entitlement for economically disadvantaged patients.

Robotic surgery's clinical advantages are well-documented: enhanced precision, reduced blood loss, lower postoperative pain, and faster recovery times. The challenge has always been cost. NIMS has demonstrated that the barrier is not technological — it is structural, and structures can be changed.

NIMS at 60-plus: from tertiary care to robotic frontier

NIMS, established in 1964, has long been Hyderabad's flagship government tertiary-care and medical-education institution. Integrating a robotic surgery programme into that legacy infrastructure — and scaling it to four figures in under three years — places it in a distinct category among Indian public hospitals. Several states have begun piloting robotic platforms in government facilities, but the combination of volume, departmental spread, and near-universal free access achieved at NIMS is uncommon.

Telangana's approach — routing high-end procedures through existing insurance architecture rather than building parallel premium tiers — offers a replicable model. The question the state's health planners will now face is whether this capacity can be extended to other government hospitals in the network.