Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk:Malpractice.

I've been in A&E twice in the last six months. Once for eight hours (costochondritis) and once for four hours (gout, gout in the fucking knee). It wasn't fun, it's not supposed to be, but normally there's someone in there in a far worse state than you. You get some sense of perspective and the doctors and nurses are usually friendly. More often than not you leave feeling better than you did when you went in.

I'm not sure if that's the case for many of the patients in ITVX's recent Malpractice (directed by Philip Barantini, written by Grace Ofori-Attah). The A&E department of the Leeds hospital in which that is set looks like absolute mayhem and when a particularly chaotic shift ends in the death of a young woman who had overdosed on opioids, Edith Owusu (Sherelle Armstrong), many of those working in the department find themselves subject to an inquiry brought by her father, Sir Anthony Owusu (Brian Bovell).

Not least Dr Lucinda Edwards (the reliably excellent Niamh Algar) and her junior Dr Ranya Morgan (Priyanka Patel). Ranya may be judgemental and, on occasions, doesn't listen but Lucinda has a lot more going on in her life. Though her home life, with husband Tom (Lorne MacFadyen) and young daughter Abi (Liberty Miller) looks idyllic, it's soon revealed she'd had long periods off work for unspecified health reasons, she keeps receiving phone calls from a mysterious 'Rose', and she lies to everyone - husband, colleagues, seniors - about almost everything. 

It's clear that Lucinda is, in some way, heavily compromised. But does that mean she is at fault, in some way, for Edith's death. Perhaps for delegating to a less experienced doctor. Or is Ranya at fault for not acting correctly on Lucinda's instructions? It's tasked to Dr Norma Callahan (Helen Behan) and Dr George Adjei (Jordan Kouame), a former colleague of Lucinda's with his own demons to deal with, to lead the investigation and it soon becomes apparent that the two of them are starting from quite different assumptions.

It rapidly becomes clear that there is a lot more to this story than meets the eye and soon we're thrown into a hectic world of traffic accidents, multiple Covid deaths, conspiracy theories, award ceremonies, yet more opioid overdoses, and some fairly squeamish to watch incisions and blood splattered bodies. There's lots of scrolling through old text messages, there's lots of sombre meetings in unremarkable offices, and there's lots of bizarre similarities.

There's also lots of very suspicious behaviour from many of the key characters. It's not long before Lucinda finds herself becoming the investigator at the same time as she is the one being investigated. But what are her intentions? What are her motivations? It's obvious, fairly early on, she's not entirely innocent but is she a pawn in a much bigger game? Is she being framed? What the fuck is going on here?

On the back of the likes of This Is Going To Hurt and Maternal it seems that hospital based dramas are the new bent cop shows (not that they've gone away) and though Malpractice is, in places, pretty far fetched it remains gripping right up until the final frame. All the leading actors are very good and they're ably supported by the likes of Scott Chambers as Lucinda's colleague Dr Oscar Beattie (he seems in awe of her, does he fancy her or is he just a huge fan?), Hannah Walters as Matron Beth Ralph, Douglas Hansell as Lucinda's former mentor Dr Rob Thornbury, Georgina Rich as his wife Eva, Nicola Wright as Edith's mother, and Ash Tandon as the curious Dr Jubair Singh.

At times, not least in some of the courtroom scenes and during one very upsetting episode with a small child, Malpractice is a very powerful drama and even when it's not it's hugely watchable. It asks questions that all doctors and nurses must continually ask themselves. Questions about priorities and questions about how medical professionals manage to keep it together in such tough environments. Not least when patients die on their watch.

I'm really glad I watched it but, having seen it, I know I would never ever want to work in a hospital. Or, for that matter, administer a lumbar puncture to a twelve year old. I'm bloody glad there are people who do those jobs though and, on balance, I think I prefer the real ones to some of the fictional ones that the creators of Malpractice have imagined.