Saving Lives in Leeds has been serving viewers an unflinching fly-on-the-wall look at the work of some of the UK’s finest surgeons within the NHS.
The eight-part BBC Two series has lifted the lid on the everyday obstacles and frustrations faced by specialist frontline medics before they even get to the business of trying to save patients’ lives. And, while multiple daily headlines warn us of the issues within the NHS, having a front row-seat to how this impacts life-saving work is another level of eye-opening.
Across the series so far, viewers have watched surgeons at Leeds General Infirmary and St James’s University Hospital juggle two urgent brain surgeries, an incredible double hand transplant and an eight-year-old boy undergo a life-saving liver surgery after several cancellations.
Frustrating shortage of beds
Chris West, a consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon who features in the series, has praised its portrayal of what’s happening in hospital wards and operating theatres today.
“I think what the programme did in a nice way was to highlight these problems; it was very realistic. Saving Lives in Leeds showed operations getting cancelled, people not getting their surgeries,” he told ED!. “It wasn’t glossed over. I think it also showed how hard the NHS works to try and get stuff done. It’s not us just sitting around. We fight every day to try and get stuff done.”
Perhaps one of the most surprising and troubling things for viewers to learn about is the issue of bed shortages. Chris noted: “That’s the frustrating part. If you looked at the sarcoma patients that I was operating on, the amount of time and input that has gone into getting them into the point of surgery is phenomenal.
“A patient will, for example, spot a little lump, have gone to the GP. You know how hard it is to see the GP. The GP will then have referred on to the hospital. The patient probably had a scan. Then they have to go to the hospital and the scan gets reported. We discuss it in our team meeting which is 30 to 40 people. Then we get a biopsy. There are 100s of people and probably thousands of hours before you ever get that patient on the table. For all of that to fall down because you don’t have a bed, is just unbelievably frustrating.”
‘You want to hear about the surgeries that ended well’
One patient who featured in this first series of Saving Lives in Leeds struck a particular chord with viewers. Trevor, who appeared in episode four, had sarcoma – a rare type of soft tissue cancer – in his lower leg and was anxious about undergoing surgery to remove it. He had discharged himself on multiple occasions before his operation took place.
Chris successfully operated on Trevor but sadly the 67-year-old died just months later after the cancer had spread to his lungs. Chris himself found watching Trevor’s episode difficult. He explained to ED!: “When I watched the episode back with Trevor, it did bring back memories, it’s never nice to know that a patient has passed away. Unfortunately, certainly with sarcomas, it happens all too often. But it’s just making sure in your time with that person. You give them a plan, you give them assurance that you’re going to look after them to the best of your ability. You’re going to do your best.”
Speaking more broadly about the loss of patients, he added: “It does affect you, you’d be wrong to say it doesn’t. I suppose one of the challenges and one of the skills that you learn is that for every patient that comes to you, you have to treat them as an individual. People often use the analogy, ‘Imagine you’re looking after your own family member’. I think that’s important because I might see 15 to 20 people in a clinic with a sarcoma. It’s very important that you don’t just dismiss it because you are seeing lots of it.”
And while some cases will inevitably have devastating outcomes, Chris is certain giving people the opportunity to know there are other people out there with similar stories through programmes such as Saving Lives in Leeds “is really helpful”. He shared: “You don’t just want to hear about the ones that don’t go so well you want to hear about the ones that ended well.”
Surgeon opens up about the current struggles in the NHS
Chris has been working in the NHS for 19 years, and couldn’t have predicted what he or his colleagues would be facing on a daily basis.
He shared: “You don’t anticipate it. I was 18 and going to medical school, it’s very hard to imagine where you’ll be 22 years later. I think you always know that working in the public sector things are going to be tightened, you have to be conscious of the resources you have and use them wisely. But I didn’t spend 22 years training to be racing around, phoning, trying to sort beds. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is, we have bed managers. But more often than not, it’s up to the surgeon on the day to do some ringing around and really dig your heels in.
“I think it is important for people to know because [within the NHS] it is difficult. There are troubles every day. It’s not just in the winter as it used to be. It’s not Covid – Covid has passed. This is our norm now. This is what we face every single day. When an individual patient comes in and gets cancelled it’s bad but operations get cancelled day in and day out.”
To learn more about the life-saving work of the Leeds surgeons follow more interviews here.
Saving Lives in Leeds continues on Wednesday, April 12 at 9pm on BBC Two.
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