C4 series reveals reality of 24 Hours in A&E

16 February 2011

Simon Dickson, Deputy Head of Documentaries

"Everybody should walk through an Emergency Room at least once in their life because it makes you realise what your priorities are. It's not the ‘rush rush rush' and the ‘money money money', it's the people you love and the fact that one minute they might be there and one minute they might be gone" - King's A&E consultant

 

We are all just one misstep from the Accident & Emergency Department.  Now a major new fourteen-part observational documentary series on Channel 4 reveals the daily life-or-death dramas of a London hospital's A&E department.

Each episode of 24 Hours in A&E (w/t) features patients treated in one 24-hour period in the Accident & Emergency Department of King's College Hospital - one of the capital's busiest trauma centres - which sees more than 350 patients per day.

The simultaneous action reveals the split second decision-making by staff and provides an insight into the inner workings of the frontline NHS as never before.

Intimate, raw and often emotional, the series tells the gripping stories of people hanging between life and death, alongside the less life-threatening - but equally revealing - cases that A&E face daily, as well as touching on the lives of the staff.

The Emergency Department is a great leveller - rich or poor, the most badly-injured are treated first.  From horrific road traffic accidents to heart attacks, stabbings to falls, children to the very elderly, all human life is here.

The series is made by The Garden Productions, who have been granted unprecedented access to King's College Hospital's Accident & Emergency Department.

Series producers and directors are Anthony Philipson (Coppers, Ross Kemp on Gangs) and Amy Flanagan (The Hospital, Feltham Sings) and executive producers Nick Curwin and Magnus Temple (One Born Every Minute, The Family)

Filming 24 hours a day for a month,  the series allows viewers to get as close as possible to unfolding stories.

Meanwhile doctors, nurses and other staff members - who never know what manner of injury will be next through their doors - share their honest feelings about the people they treat and the often harsh lessons in life they have learnt on the front line of medicine.

Simon Dickson, Channel 4's Deputy Head of Documentaries who commissioned the series, said: "A&E is somewhere where profound human stories - both heart-warming and tragic - happen every day.  For the patients and loved ones who visit, this could be the most significant day of their lives.

 "Meanwhile the staff, whose jobs are to save lives, see humanity in all its raw diversity. This series provides a unique portrait of modern Britain and an insight into the way we live our lives."

 Nick Curwin, executive producer, said:  "It's a privilege to have access to Kings A&E and the consent of thousands of patients. Focusing each episode on a single 24-hour period and using 70 cameras means we can reveal the amazing work of an emergency department as never before: authentically."