The Critical List
Duration: 3 x 60'
Contact SalesWith unique access, this revealing series follows the day-to-day action on the Critical List, where every patient needs emergency surgery - but who goes first?
Through compelling stories, this series lays bare the extreme pressures surgical and hospital staff are under as they battle to deliver lifesaving surgery to as many patients as possible and as quickly as possible.
With each new emergency – a patient collapsing in A&E, a post-operative complication in another hospital department, a worsening patient in critical care – the list gets reshuffled. Names move up or down, depending on how seriously ill each patient is – and whether someone else is even closer to catastrophe…
With unique access to an emergency surgery unit, this high-octane series uncovers these healthcare challenges from the ground – or surgical table – up.
Lack of beds, a growing backlog of 'non-urgent' cases, and delays in primary healthcare all cause The Critical List to grow, while the cases of patients who should have been treated in good time elsewhere suddenly become more urgent!
Working through the mounting backlog of cases, surgeons and theatre staff bluntly discuss who should get bumped from another list to make way for emergency patients magnifying the extent of the urgent day to day interactions and split-second decision making of staff on the ground, as they simply get on with their jobs.
For Channel 4
