Thursday 31 January 2013

Junior Doctors: Your Life in Their Hands - Episode Two

This episode was absolutely littered with fantastic and hilarious quotes. Well, maybe not littered, but there were a few...

The episode started off showing the wonderful Jen aka. 'Dr Exceptionally Competent' at her finest: First administering IV Morphine to a patient with an inflamed pancreas and after this, making her way down to A&E to pop a Nasogastric Tube in for another patient. This, however, was something that she didn't manage first time, I'm sure it's an easy mistake to make; but seeing how much distress the patient was in, Jen evidently beat herself up about it afterwards.
Picture courtesy of BBC Three

Then the programme focussed on Emily ('Dr. Massive Hairclip') who was wandering around showing her massive hairclip to all of the world (or part of Liverpool, anyway...) She was on her very first night shift; and was particularly peeved that she was working at the same time that Tom had organised a massive Junior Doctor Do. Her shift was unbelievably quiet; which must have annoyed the camera crew and editors... And she was left to sleep in the Doctors' Mess room enveloped in a blanket whilst her housemates were partying the night away. She did have to do a PR though, which I'm sure the BBC team loved... (Fantastic quote No. 1: "The X-Ray shows absolutely loads of poo.")

Tom, however, did a good job on his day shift of spotting that the patient he was chatting to/clerking was probably having a heart attack. Cue lots of staff crowding round this poor clammy man's bed whilst Tom tried to pop a cannula in. Unfortunately for him (and the patient) this hasn't been Tom's strong point so far. He managed it on the second attempt; much to the relief of everyone there (and me, at home with my hands covering my eyes...) It's almost as though they're trying to shoehorn one of the doctors into the 'bad at cannulating' stereotype; like Andy in last year's series. 
No Spongebob action this week which is disappointing, but I'm sure I'll get over it.

Another fantastic, if not slightly crude, quote was when the other doctors were speculating as to whether Emily was going out for a date. She vehemently denied this; but that didn't stop the others grilling her:
Jen -"Is he going to cook you a nice vegetarian meal?"
Tom - "Or is it going to be a meat feast?"
Poor Emily also got branded an "old tanker" by Tom for her drinking habits...

Ed's now an F1! Poor Ed. At the end of last week's episode he had to go back home to Italy to visit his ill Father; and this week he was back, with the awful news that his Father died before he got there. Very sad. He's now based on what appears to be MAU instead of A&E; and still seems a little bit unsure of himself, but it's clear that his confidence is gradually growing.

Tristan, however, hardly popped up; except to talk about how to deal with dying patients. He also managed to pop up whenever there appeared to be partying.

Oli was back this week as well. No topless scenes though...We didn't even get to see his array of unusual shirts this week either. I'm slightly disappointed. We did, however, get to follow him on his night shift, where he uttered one of the best phrases I've heard recently (mainly because I don't get out very much...) Which was: "You see an empty bed and think 'I could sleep the s**t out of you'". Just amazing.
Amieth

Of course, this week also featured the exciting obligatory payday celebrations. An important milestone in the Junior Doctors series; which normally leads to various images of the doctors inebriated and dancing badly and also shopping, or talking about shopping. (As an aside, my personal favourite 'payday bit' was Amieth's shopping trip for vegetables in series two...)

I mentioned in my post about the first episode that I reckoned that Kiera would be the one who 'would fade into the background as a victim of editing' and I was right. I did not see her once during this episode!

Next week: It's all about alcohol and the effect it has on the residents of Liverpool.

Thursday 24 January 2013

Junior Doctors: Your Life in Their Hands - Episode One

Now, I love this programme. That's no exaggeration. So I thought to pass some time, I'd tell you a little about it. (Even though, if you're reading this, you probably watched it anyway...)



Firstly, there was, of course, the obligatory 'last supper' - Full of worries from the F1s, anecdotes from the F2s and the F1s seeking reassurance from their slightly more experienced colleagues.

Let's talk a little about the new doctors:

Ed - Poor, poor Ed aka 'The Italian Mountain Doctor'... He did a couple of shifts in A&E before his superiors decided that he wasn't quite cut out for it yet. It was for the best in terms of the patients' interests, but the poor guy wasn't exactly let down gently it seems. This meant that he was to be demoted to an F1 position elsewhere in the hospital. To top it all off, he had to go home to visit his ill father who had taken a turn for the worse. At work, he clearly had the best interests of his patients at heart, even if he was very unconfident with it. He wouldn't have sought so much reassurance from his superiors otherwise. I look forward to watching him grow more confident.


Oli - Aka. 'Dr. Toerag'... Charming? Yes. Popular? Yes. Those shirts? Perhaps not... He clearly uses his charming bedside manner to his advantage, even managing to persuade a lady with emphysema to have an ABG despite her hating them; and only got branded a toerag. 

Tom -  Wow! I love Tom! He kind of reminds me of Boris Johnson in a way, but I'm sure that's just me. He dressed up as Spongebob Squarepants which makes anyone a winner in my book. He seems very empathic but also slightly unsure of himself, like Ed.

Tristan - Aka. 'Dr. Nice Beard who works in Gerontology'. The daddy of the group. Very cute daughter. Felt quite sorry for him having to do a PR so early on, but that's part of the job, I suppose, and he evidently wasn't phased by it.

Keira - Also works in A&E with Ed. I like her, and she slightly reminds me of Toyah Willcox in a way; again, I'm sure that's just me... I'd like to see more of her but I fear she'll be one of the doctors who'll fade into the background as a victim of editing.

Emily - Aka. 'Dr. Massive Hairclip'. What a massive hairclip! I like her too, although I must admit I wasn't expecting to see a life model's bum in the first few minutes of the programme... Pleasant surprise? Ha...


Jen - I completely admire her evident competitive and determined streak. She got into theatre within her first week, which is pretty impressive. I'm sure she'll go far. I'm actually starting to sound slightly like a teacher writing school reports now...


On the subject of the doctors, I swear that there were supposed to be eight of them. Even the original press picture released by the BBC featured eight - So what's happened to the other one? I'm confused, but I'm sure time will tell.

This programme, of course, also featured the 'Obligatory Crash Call Run'. Obviously. Tom was on call and had to run across the hospital to a male patient who suddenly went into cardiac arrest while his 15 year old daughter stood helpless nearby. Tom and the team were unfortunately unable to save the poor man. A very, very sad story indeed.

One plus, however, is that, we: the audience, were spared the bleep! This was something that really got on my nerves during the second series - So God knows how the doctors feel with such an obscene, wailing, bleepy thing on their person constantly.