Proximie, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Deloitte, has partnered with the NHS to launch what is being described as the largest-ever surgical evaluation at the public health service, deploying AI-driven technology across 104 operating theatres, catheterisation laboratories, and endoscopy suites at eight NHS hospital sites over the course of 12 months.
The year-long programme, built around Proximie’s Intelligence Suite, targets more than 20,000 procedures annually across participating sites. The initiative aims to improve theatre efficiency and unlock additional patient capacity from existing NHS facilities, without the need for new infrastructure or extended staff working hours.
A Technology Partnership Built for Scale
The programme brings together three partners — Proximie, AWS, and Deloitte — each contributing distinct capabilities to the evaluation. Proximie leads the programme as the core technology provider. AWS is providing the cloud and AI infrastructure required to securely process high volumes of surgical data across all eight hospital sites. Deloitte is supporting programme delivery and transformation across participating NHS Trusts and the NHS London region.
Kira Levy, Head of Healthcare UK at AWS, described the initiative as “a powerful example of how cloud and AI can help hospitals to unlock capacity within existing resources, so more patients can be treated sooner.”
Sara Siegel, Global Health and Human Services Sector Leader at Deloitte, highlighted the broader context of operating theatre use: “Operating theatres are the most costly and resource-heavy part of a hospital. Efficient use of these facilities allows NHS Trusts to maximise resources and, importantly, ensure more patients receive timely procedures.”
How the Intelligence Suite Works
Proximie is a UK-headquartered health technology company that transforms operating rooms into connected ecosystems of people, devices, and data. Its cloud-based platform combines surgical telepresence, data capture, AI, and computer vision to support collaboration, training, and workflow optimisation.
The Intelligence Suite captures surgical and operational data in the background of the operating theatre without disrupting clinical teams. Data is de-identified and anonymised at source, and Proximie’s AI models then translate it into real-time insights across the operative pathway. This enables clinical teams to identify bottlenecks, reduce delays between procedures, and make better use of available theatre time.
A notable feature of the AWS infrastructure component is its ability to scale across all eight NHS hospital sites without requiring additional on-site infrastructure at each location, making the programme operationally efficient to deploy at this scale.
The Vision Behind the Evaluation
Dr. Nadine Hachach-Haram, Founder and CEO of Proximie, spoke about the motivation behind the programme following the announcement. Writing on LinkedIn, she stated: “I still operate in the NHS, and nobody in those theatres is short of effort… Sometimes there is simply a better way to do things, and it takes hospitals willing to innovate, work with us and push the NHS forward.”
She further added: “Although we are already seeing material impact from our current global deployments, this evaluation is built to find out how big an impact this makes across the NHS, at scale.”
The NHS Surgical AI pilot reflects a response to ongoing capacity challenges. The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS England) had previously expressed concern that the NHS might miss the Government’s interim target of 65% of patients starting treatment within 18 weeks by March 2026. The target was subsequently met, with 65.3% of patients starting treatment within 18 weeks in March. However, RCS England has continued to warn that sustaining that momentum remains a challenge given existing capacity constraints.
Programme Scope at a Glance
The scale of the evaluation underlines the ambition of the partnership. The programme spans 104 operating theatres, catheterisation laboratories, and endoscopy suites across 8 NHS hospital sites, runs for a duration of 12 months, targets over 20,000 procedures per year, and is led by three technology and transformation partners — Proximie, AWS, and Deloitte.
The NHS Surgical AI evaluation represents one approach being explored to make better use of existing theatre capacity, using AI and operational data to identify efficiencies across the surgical pathway. Over the next 12 months, participating sites will use insights from the Intelligence Suite to reduce procedural delays and optimise theatre scheduling, with the goal of enabling more patients to be treated without placing additional demands on clinical staff.
The partnership between Proximie, AWS, and Deloitte illustrates how cloud-based platforms and AI-driven analytics are being applied to address one of healthcare’s most persistent operational challenges — doing more with what already exists.
