Hospital, series 4 episode 2 review: a key understanding of one of Britain's most renowned institutions

Jasper Rees
Consultant Neurosurgeon Andrew Brodbelt at The Walton Centre, Liverpool - 2
Consultant Neurosurgeon Andrew Brodbelt at The Walton Centre, Liverpool - 2

Last month the BBC screened Care, a drama about the state’s failing provision for dementia sufferers. Its author Jimmy McGovern reserved his largest lashing of sarcasm for the NHS job title known as a “discharge liaison officer”. In the latest edition of Hospital (BBC Two) there was a key role for someone working as a discharge planner. Same job, nearly the same job title, but this was a more generous treatment.

Hospital is now into the fourth series of what is becoming a long-term collaboration between the UK’s two most renowned institutions, each beloved but struggling to match the expectations placed upon them. The BBC’s ongoing X-ray of the NHS has brought it to Liverpool, where the same old narratives are in play: masses of strain on the system and  its indispensable staff, one of whom will turn to the camera, as they did here, and say, “Today is the worst  I’ve seen it.”

Discharge Nurse John Jones
Discharge Nurse John Jones

It’s the task of Hospital to veer between light and dark, but mostly the narrative is about muddling between those two poles. Thus the discharge planner at the Walton Centre in Liverpool was to find a private residence for Tom, an 18-year-old who suffered a brain injury in  a car crash and had become a bed-blocker through no fault of his own. He was desperate to get out of hospital but couldn’t remember why he  had to stay: his angry efforts to escape were edited together to  make a succinct illustration of his short-term memory failure.

Tom’s story was told alongside  that of Sophie, another young person with nothing visibly wrong with  her but who, thanks to an inflammatory episode on her brainstem, was only ever a few minutes away from possible death. There was much talk of pathways  and patient journeys and, like others, this episode worked hard to reach positive destinations – Sophie’s rediscovery of her voice with the  help of technical wizardry was a particular joy.

I wonder how many stories get culled in the edit because the outcome is neither light nor dark but just more waiting, more grey days without a destination in view?