Hospital Series 4

Episode
Episode 3
Broadcast Info
2019 (58 mins)
Description
Now in its fourth series, the award winning Hospital, for the first time, charts the day to day life of six NHS Trusts across an entire city - Liverpool - whose hospitals have a catchment area covering more than two and half million people, stretching beyond the city to North Wales, Cheshire and to the Isle of Man. Filmed between October and December 2018, as the impact of the collapse of the multinational construction company Carillion is felt across the NHS and other public services, Hospital is the story of the health service in unprecedented times. Edited and broadcast within weeks of filming, this six-part series for BBC TWO will once again capture the day to day realities facing the NHS right now. With the government’s ten year plan for the NHS just announced, Hospital brings audiences close to the issues and challenges that continually dominate the headlines. The Liverpool Women’s is the only NHS Trust in the UK to solely care for women and babies. With eight thousand babies born each year it houses the biggest maternity unit in the country, with an adjoining neonatal unit that is a recognised centre of excellence and specialities in clinical genetics, fertility treatments, and gynaecological care including cancers in women. Despite its expertise the hospital is struggling with a recruitment crisis in some of its key specialities, like gynaecological oncology, women’s cancer. The department is a third short of consultants with the four existing oncologists fielding increasingly larger clinics. Not only is a recruitment drive underway but a multi-million pound bid to move next to the general adult hospital, The Liverpool Royal, is a priority. With advances in medicine more women with more complex conditions are coming through the doors of the Women’s, often needing not only the Women’s stand alone specialist care but a range of treatments and facilities only available in a big general hospital. Patients from the Women’s are routinely transferred to other hospitals around Liverpool for diagnostics such as scans or to intensive care units if an emergency occurs. Ten years ago, when Kate was in her twenties she had a double mastectomy after she discovered a lump in her breast. Kate and her husband Glen wanted to start a family but couldn’t until she had finished the five year course of drugs to limit the chance of the cancer returning. The drugs would have affected the development of an unborn baby. They now have a two year old daughter and Kate is pregnant again with another little girl. But the cancer has returned, this time in her bones including her spine. Kate is being treated for it at another hospital. The oncologists there and the obstetricians at the Women’s must now balance Kate’s treatment for the cancer and how to keep the baby safe until they can deliver her and give Kate the essential radiotherapy she needs in time. Baby Violet is only thirty-three hours old. She has travelled from Worcester to the Women’s neo-natal department where she is diagnosed with a potentially life threatening bowel problem. With no neo-natal surgical facilities on site Violet is in an ambulance again for an emergency operation at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. Lili is a nineteen year old pharmacy student. Not for the first time, she has a large, painful swelling in her abdomen. Her consultant at the Women’s is concerned the recurrence of fluid build up and a growth may indicate cancer. The large ovarian cyst he removes when he operates weighs just over a kilogram. The challenge now for the medics is not just a possible malignancy but preserving the fertility of a woman so young. Sixty four year old Rebekah has been waiting almost four months for the operation to remove a tumour in the wall of her womb. She was quickly diagnosed with endometrial cancer but because of the shortage of specialist surgeons at the Women’s she is in danger of breaching NHS waiting times and still doesn’t know if the cancer has spread. Shown from multiple perspectives, audiences witness the complexities of the dilemmas and decision-making, which happen every day for consultants, surgeons and managers and the impact these decisions have on patients. Against the backdrop of historic demands stemming from limited resources, increasing patient numbers and social care at full stretch, the series will show the extraordinary work of some of Liverpool’s 20,000 NHS hospital staff as they push the boundaries of what is possible with world class, cutting edge treatments and life-saving operations.
Genre
Medicine; Business Studies; Science; Biology; Health and Social Care

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Hospital Series 4". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/232821 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)