The award-winning 24 Hours in A&E documentary series could be described as ghoulish pain porn, if it weren’t for the fact that our NHS is chronically underfunded and under-resourced and watching the staff at St George’s hospital in south west London deliver service of the highest calibre in spite of such constraints makes this one of the must see programmes on TV at this time.
The Tooting-based hospital has one of the busiest A&E departments in Britain and, being in a sprawling metropolis, it deals with a huge range of injuries and injuries. This episode explores the value of freedom, and what happens when it’s taken away as Frankie, who’s 19, arrives in resus after being thrown from a horse, which then trampled on her. As doctors send Frankie for scans, her mother Sharon discusses the escapism that horse-riding gives Frankie.
24 Hours in A&E – Wednesday 9.00pm on Channel 4.
