Published at 11:38, Thursday, 19 November 2009

Touchy lot these health chiefs aren’t they? They’ve done well out of the Labour government over the past 12 years: squillions have been pumped into making our hospitals bigger and better, into improving equipment and in the number and quality of staff in them.

Casualty: Not real

Antony Sumara, who has taken over at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Hospital Trust, has launched a stinging attack on TV dramas like Casualty and Holby City.

Apparently, they give completely the wrong impression about life in our hospitals.

He says they are filled with staff acting unprofessionally, with poor conduct and blatant breaches of patient confidentiality.

Have these programmes only just been created?

Has there been an unexpected and virulent outbreak of hospital-based dramas?

Is it contagious? Will this sort of thing spread to other channels? What about other countries?

We could have a pandemic on our hands here.

Is there a national helpline?

Where’s my medication – nurse!

After careful research lasting, ooooh five seconds, I have discovered that no, these programmes haven’t just been created – didn’t the same sorts of things go on in Emergency Ward 10, General Hospital and Dr Kildare?

Blaming Holby and Casualty for giving a false impression of hospital life is like saying that Dad’s Army gave an unfair insight into the war effort; that Judge Paul Batty is just like Judge John Deed and likes nothing better than leaping into a fast car and arresting criminals with his own bare hands and that party political broadcasts are to be believed.

Dr Sumara also claims such programmes could put off young people who may want a career in medicine. I’m not sure if the good Dr has been on the funny gas, but someone should tell him that these are dramas, not documentaries.

Chances are, watching the glamorous, attractive staff at Holby or in Casualty will encourage more youngsters to become medics.

Hospitals are like any place of work.

Sure, they are indeed staffed by dedicated people who do literally deal in life and death cases every day.

But not every minute of every day.

They are staffed by real people and real people do gossip, do fall in love and fall out with colleagues and do suffer minor and major personal crises.

All this is detailed in Casualty and Holby, they just make it a bit more juicy, more exciting, it’s called entertainment.

The difference is, these hospitals are on the telly and we know they’re not real.

Dr Sumara has a lot on his plate to repair the reputation of his own hospital, rather than worry about how imaginary ones are being run.

Earlier this year, a damning report found “appalling” standards of care at Mid Staffs, with patients and relatives describing “Third World” conditions on the wards.

I’d have thought he would be far too busy to worry about what his patients watch on TV.

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