How overworked doctors on BBC show Hospital describe daily life on the NHS frontline – as they fight for scarce beds to treat patients
“IT’S a game of trumps really, isn’t it?”
Those are the words you expect to hear in a friendly game of cards.
But instead those are the words uttered by overworked doctors competing for beds to ensure their patients get the potentially life-saving surgery they desperately need.
Tonight’s episode of the BBC documentary, Hospital, puts viewers in the front seat.
From their vantage point they can see what it is like for medics and ward staff to compete for intensive care beds.
In this episode filmed at Charing Cross Hospital, when the hospital had been at 98 per cent capacity for 28 out of the last 31 days - Dr Kevin O’Neill and Dr Kyri are waiting to be told of their patients will have an intensive care bed after surgery.
There is currently only one bed free in the ward.
At one point both doctors are discussing their patients cases on screen, they can be heard talking about how many times their patient has been pushed back in favour of a more urgent surgeries.
The doctors wish each other luck as Dr O’Neill says: “It’s a game of trumps really, isn’t it?”
Dr O’Neill, a world- leading brain surgeon and one of the hospitals most in demand specialists, is scheduled to operate on patient Valerie’s aneurysms.
It’s a game of trumps really, isn’t it?
Dr Kevin O’Neill
Valarie was diagnosed with multiple aneurysms seven years ago.
She has had operations on two, but has been rescheduled three times in the last 10-months for surgery to clamp a third one.
Meanwhile, Dr Kyri, from interventional radiology, is also waiting to see if his patient can get a bed following surgery.
His patient has already be rescheduled twice.
Neither doctors want to see their patient rescheduled yet again.
Choking back tears, Valarie, a home care assistant, said: “What happens if it is cancelled today? I am not going home.
“They said it would be done in January, 10 months on, three cancellations, I am hoping it will happen today.”
Staff must prepare for a worst case scenario with her surgery, meaning she will need and intensive care bed afterwards.
Dr O’Neil said: “We all want the best for our patients.
“In an ideal world everybody would get their own bed, but it is not an ideal world.”
On the intensive care ward, things are no less stressful.
Nurse Nicki and consultant Sarah are desperately trying to work out how they can free up bed space for the patients.
Nicki tells viewers: “We don’t like cancelling patients, but sometimes that decision is out of our hands.
“Every decision impacts on somebody else.”
All the time they take, struggling to make the decision, two theatres go unused – slowing hospital procedures even more.
They take a gamble and allow both patients to go into surgery, hoping the right amount of beds will be free afterwards.
Sarah said: “What we tend to end up doing is we will accept two patients when we have one bed and hope that one doesn’t need to come.
“And if one does need to come we need to work out another strategy.
“It is not fun on our end.”
This is the reality of the winter crisis facing the NHS at the moment.
And it is not about to slow down.
After collapsing at work, crane driver Phil is becoming increasingly more paralysed with each passing day and requires urgent care in the hospital.
Dr O’Neill 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.
Dr 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.
The pressures facing NHS staff has dominated the news in recent months, with senior medics warning the health service is facing its worst winter crisis in its 69-year history.
Tonight, in the third episode of BBC2’s new documentary Hospital, the daily stresses faced by those on the NHS frontline was laid bare.
So severe is the NHS situation, the Red Cross has branded it a “humanitarian crisis”, while leading NHS bosses have said it is an “unprecedented” and “titanic” pressure.
Casualty departments are failing to meet key performance targets and are being forced to turn ambulances away, while ‘bed blocking’ is up 52 per from five years ago.
Around 7,000 of England’s 137,000 hospital beds are filled each day by patients who are ready to be discharged, but cannot be due to a lack of provision in social care.
Hospital airs on BBC2 on Wednesdays at 9pm
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