Two patients await life-saving surgery at St Mary's in Paddington, the biggest of five hospitals in the Trust. They both need a bed on the intensive care ward. But the hospital is full to capacity and there is only one bed left.
While the hospital tries to discharge patients, new ones continue to arrive. Peter Lai, a 60 year old retired software engineer arrives at the hospital for a lifesaving operation on an aortic aneurysm in his chest.
After collapsing at work, 48-year-old crane driver Phil is becoming increasingly paralysed with each passing day. Kevin O'Neill, one of the country's leading brain surgeons, diagnoses him with a fast-growing brain tumour and decides to perform a potentially life-threatening operation to remove it. But as the clock ticks, securing theatre time for Phil is not straightforward in a hospital approaching full capacity. O'Neill and his colleagues deal with some of the country's most complex and challenging neurological cases. Their work is so in demand, the department has one of the longest waiting lists in the country. But the hospital is determined to clear the backlog of patients - some have been waiting for their operations for over a year. The pressure is on for O'Neill and his team to get through a packed list. At the same time, the Trust is pioneering a form of non-invasive brain surgery that replaces knives and drills with MRI-focused ultrasound waves. Consultant neurologist Dr Peter Bain says: "The first time I saw an operation like this was on Star Trek". One of his first patients is Selwyn, a 52-year-old painter and decorator with an uncontrollable tremor. If successful, Selwyn's operation could pave the way for significant reductions in brain surgery recovery times and potentially reduce patient waiting times for some brain surgeries.
A woman from Nigeria recovers in the hospital after going into premature labour with quadruplets having fallen ill on a flight. She receives a visit from the hospital's overseas officer Terry, whose job it is to prepare her for a huge bill. Because she is not a British resident, she must pay for the care that she and her babies are receiving. The cost of such specialist care quickly tops £100,000 and looks likely to rise to half a million pounds during their stay. Terry explains that, despite her distressing predicament, it is a legal requirement for the hospital to collect the money the NHS is owed. The woman is just one of a number of overseas patients who are receiving lifesaving care and from whom the hospital must now try to recoup money. Although emergency treatment given in A&E is free, non-UK residents who are admitted to a ward have to be billed.
This episode looks at pioneering treatments for some of the oldest and youngest patients in the hospital. A 98-year-old man arrives at Hammersmith Hospital for a landmark heart operation. The operation known as TAVI is offered to patients who are deemed not suitable for open heart surgery. Without the op, John has been told he has only a 50 percent chance of surviving the next six months. The clock is also ticking for 18-year-old Debbie at St Mary's Hospital, home to the Trust's specialist paediatric centre. Debbie is about to have a lifesaving bone marrow transplant which could cure her of sickle cell disease.
In the final episode of the series, surgeons are forced to use unconventional methods to get their operations completed against the odds. At Hammersmith Hospital, 31-year-old Jennifer is taking part in a groundbreaking scheme, as she donates her own kidney to save her husband Elliot's life. Meanwhile at St Mary's, 84-year-old Betty arrives to have her bowel cancer removed, but colorectal surgeon George Reese has to decide whether it is safe to go ahead with her operation as there are no beds available for her to recover in. Last in the series.
In the immediate aftermath of the terror attack on Westminster Bridge, three miles away a major incident is declared at St Mary's Hospital, the nearest of London's four Major Trauma Centres.
51 year old Glendon from Preston has Glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain tumour. Since being diagnosed 14 months ago, he has spent 10 hours a day Googling his condition in the hope of living longer.
Cameras follow patients at St Mary's who face a long wait, including a woman with serious mental health issues. There is also footage of patients and their loved ones coping with dementia, including a wife who is her 75-year-old husband's sole carer, and is at breaking point, partly due to his aggressive outbursts.
With access to two key specialities, cardiology and neurosurgery, staff at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust are pushing the boundaries of what's possible technologically, at a time when the Trust has a planned annual deficit of £41 million.
12-year-old Keilan's operation has been scheduled in the middle of this winter crisis. He suffers from Scoliosis, a severe curvature of the spine. The longer he waits for his operation, the more serious his condition becomes.
Head and neck surgeon David Grant returns from annual leave to find his surgical list has snowballed. He's one of only two consultant surgeons at Nottingham University Hospitals' busy cancer head and neck service.
The advice from the NHS to cancel all non-urgent surgery is taking a heavy toll at Nottingham University Hospitals. Cameras follow Val, a 55-year-old mouth cancer patient, and Dilip Srinivasan, the surgeon fighting to see her operation goes ahead despite the new NHS ruling. Also featured is orthopaedic consultant surgeon Tony Westbrook, who has had most of his routine surgical list cancelled.
On most days in winter, the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Queen's Medical Centre is full. Intensive care is often the last resort for very sick children, a place that can keep them alive while doctors work on making them better.
Cancer operations at Nottingham University Hospitals are under threat of being cancelled as the Trust has run out of beds. As people lie on trollies waiting to be admitted into A&E, hundreds of mostly elderly patients are stuck in hospital.
Fifty-one -year old Ruth will need a critical care bed to recover from major surgery to her spine. On the morning of her operation, there is only one bed available for the six patient's who are booked in for major surgery that day.
It's peak time in one of the biggest emergency departments in the country, at 40 years old Royal Liverpool University Hospital in the heart of the city, and the hospital is already nearly full.
Following a patient who has been in intensive care for twelve months, and another who has been ready for rehab for the past two months. Neither can leave The Walton Centre as there are no facilities outside for them.
A consultant recruitment crisis threatens care at Liverpool Women's Hospital. Doctors balance the care of a pregnant mother with cancer and a 33-hour-old baby is rushed for surgery.
Alder Hay closes its critical car unit to new admissions. A five year old girl returns three times for her cancelled heart operation and surgery at the edge of technology saves the life of a baby.
On an unusual day, three kidney transplants are due at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. At the woman's hospital, a mother pregnant with twins is faced with a heart-wrenching decision.
A teenager self funds cutting edge surgery to treat his cerebral palsy, and surgeons go to appeal to fund an 81 year old's heart surgery and new DNA tumour profiling to try to save a baby.
David Grant is only one of two head and neck cancer surgeons at the Nottingham Trust.
On Merseyside, operating theatres shut but emergencies continue to arrive as patients are caught up in an extraordinary hospital move.
In Aintree Hospital’s major trauma centre, a 15-strong team are trying to save the life of a young man who has been stabbed in the chest – one of three stabbings to arrive during the day.
Heart disease remains the biggest killer in the UK and every 5 minutes, across the country, someone has a heart attack. Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital's specialist services are on the frontline of this modern epidemic.
As medical advances save children who a decade ago may not have survived, Alder Hey Children's Hospital faces the challenge of providing ongoing care for these complex patients.
With NHS ‘bed blocking’ numbers at their highest level since 2017, for those who are medically fit to leave, multi-billion pound cuts to social and community care services have left a shortage of care-home beds, equipment, staff and housing, effectively stranding these patients in hospital. With a duty to oversee safe discharges, this leaves the NHS no choice but to keep these medically-fit patients in hospital.
In Accident and Emergency at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, a woman is brought in by ambulance after experiencing an unexplained seizure, one of 1,400 the emergency department will see this year. As seizures can be a warning sign of a complex brain condition, patients like this will be referred onto a neurological specialist to determine what has caused this episode. At least one in nine people who present to A&E with seizures have symptoms of FND.
Alder Hey Children's Hospital is home to a world-renowned craniofacial department, one of only four in the UK treating life-threatening congenital skull and facial abnormalities.
The final episode looks at radical new treatments and surgeries offering cancer patients hopes of survival, including two-year-old Yeshua, who has a tumour in his abdomen. In Iraq, where he was born, Yeshua was given a five per cent chance of survival. Though high doses of chemotherapy have shrunk the tumour over the past six months, in order for Yeshua to survive he needs an extremely complicated 12-hour operation at Alder Hey Children's Hospital to remove as much of the growth as possible.
Staff at London’s Royal Free Trust battle Covid-19. With beds in the hospital rapidly filling with Covid-positive patients, doctors are redeployed and ICU doubles its capacity.
Following staff and patients at Royal Free London. As the pandemic approaches its peak, ten per cent of the workforce are sick or self-isolating, and it is a challenge to provide safe staffing levels.
The UK lockdown is over, but London’s Royal Free Hospital is counting the cost of having to prioritise Covid-19 above almost everything else as they battle to treat the patients left behind.
This episode follows the Royal Free London NHS Hospital Foundation Trust as it faces the long-lasting effects of Covid on both patients and their services, amidst the looming threat of a second wave.
A look at the impact of Covid-19 on the Royal Free Hospital's transplant services, which treat some of the hospital's most vulnerable patients. It normally performs around 140 transplants a year in each discipline.
A bed shortage in Barnet hospital highlights the perpetual challenge of trying to discharge older patients, alongside the added complexities of Covid-19 infection risks.
While Covid patients are again being transferred to intensive care, the clinicians now have a wider array of treatments used to fight the virus, including experimental drugs and convalescent plasma.
As Covid-19 levels rise again, the Royal Free London prepares to roll out a mass vaccination programme, but it faces a staffing crisis that in turn threatens vital cancer operations.
University Hospital Coventry fights to restore services, but with their critical care unit at capacity, a decision is taken to ration intensive care beds for major operations.
University Hospital Coventry’s gynaecological oncology department faces rising referrals, a growing backlog and complex cases as the hospital’s theatre capacity attempts to return to normal.
With a UK lockdown baby boom, this episode follows University Hospital Coventry’s maternity and specialist research unit as it deals with the more complex and high-risk pregnancies.
At Coventry’s University Hospital, Critical Care is at full capacity, and two neurosurgeons must find a solution to treat both of their patients with only one bed available.
As lockdown begins to ease, the Emergency Department at University Hospital, Coventry is experiencing a 30% increase in patients presenting with mental health concerns.
After a year on hold, Plastic Surgery can finally tackle its backlog. But with NHS restoration funding unclear, difficult decisions must be made over the investment in robotic surgery.
In March 2020, as the country entered lockdown, Hospital revealed the frontline of medicine at the Royal Free London. Now, two years on, we revisit the Trust as it implements its recovery programme and does its part to tackle the longest waiting lists in the NHS's history. Filmed during the winter of 2022, we follow the emotional journeys of the patients starting to receive their long-awaited surgeries and the staff who treat them as the Trust grapples with the challenge of recovering from the impact of the last two years.
