Hospital Series 6

Episode
Episode 2
Broadcast Info
2020 (59 mins)
Description
May 2020, at the height of the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic, BBC Two broadcast two extraordinary films following the staff and patients of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. Award-winning Hospital has now returned for a sixth series to Royal Free London, a world-leader in the treatment of infectious diseases and one of the biggest NHS Trusts in the country. Episode two follows the The Royal Free London NHS Hospital Foundation Trust as it faces the longlasting effects of covid on both patients, and their services, amidst the looming threat of a second wave. As people couldn’t, and or, didn’t access health care during the pandemic, we see the cancer services now inundated with new referrals and the patients facing increasing waits for surgery. It’s mid-summer and the Trust has a target of getting all services back to 90% of their pre-Covid activity, and all within strict new infection control guidelines. The NHS has mounting backlogs, and departments across the Trust are battling for scarce theatre slots while trying to prioritise their volume of cases. They’re doing everything they can to treat as many patients as possible safely, but when at any moment staff can be sent home to isolate, because of a suspected covid diagnosis or contact, the immensity of the challenge is clear. At Barnet Hospital a large team meeting is underway when a clinician is informed he has tested positive for Coronavirus. He must leave the site immediately, while the hospitals infection control team spring into action to identify who has had ‘significant contact’with him, and must therefore also go home and isolate for 14 days. Any positive result has the power to take out swathes of staff, and have a huge impact on the hospital and its patients. At the Royal Free Hospital, clinical lead for breast surgery Debashis Ghosh is coming to terms with the effects of Covid on his patients. Referrals dropped by nearly 70% during the peak of the pandemic, and Deb is concerned that people are sat at home with cancer, too scared of the virus to come in. As a result of these delays, more and more patients are now presenting with much more advanced stages of cancer than they would ordinarily have done. Referrals to Deb’s clinics are now finally beginning to pick up. During his rapid-access-clinic he meets 52-year-old Smita who has found two lumps in her breast. Tests confirm they are indeed cancerous tumours. Smita will be fast-tracked and offered immediate treatment - a Mag seed operation which targets the area precisely and reconstructs the breast. But when Deb himself presents at Accident and Emergency with coronavirus symptoms, his patient’s treatment hangs in the balance. At Barnet Hospital, there has been no elective surgery since the start of the pandemic, as the hospital was overwhelmed with patients with the virus. Colorectal surgeon, Daren Francis, is trying to get 86-year-old retired theatre director Barbara onto his emergency operating list. Barbara presented to Accident and Emergency after falling at home. Having previously had an operation for colon cancer, she has a temporary stoma bag but this has caused her to lose too much fluid and has affected her kidney function. This in turn resulted in confusion which led to her fall. The plan was to do a common reversal operation and remove the stoma bag when there was more capacity on the operating lists. Her fall has now led to her being a ‘semi emergency’and Daren has decided to keep her as an inpatient, in the hopes a space will open up. If Barbara leaves the hospital, she will join the growing waitlist of thousands of people, and may have to wait months for surgery. Elsewhere, the lasting impact of the virus is being felt by those experiencing debilitating symptoms after contracting Covid. One of these is 69- year-old shopkeeper David, who after contracting the virus in May has had two strokes, a heart attack and organ failure, and now has difficulty speaking and walking. He is currently an inpatient at the Edgware Neurological Rehabilitation Centre, where he will need to relearn these basic skills before he can return home to his wife for the first time in months. We follow the human stories as the Trust experiences immense pressure on resources, staff and patients; with the effects of Covid still looming large, the threat of a second surge and winter coming ever closer.
Genre
Medicine; Business Studies; Science; Biology; Health and Social Care

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Hospital Series 6". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/237788 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)