TV series gives viewers chance to interact with surgeons during operations
15 May 2009
'The Operation: Surgery Live' (25-28 May) will feature top surgeons from leading NHS hospital trusts performing operations including heart, brain, tumour removal and stomach surgery. It is being made by Windfall Films in association with Wellcome Collection, the public venue run by the Wellcome Trust.
The series will offer a unique insight into modern surgery by allowing viewers to interact with the operating theatre - via microblogging site Twitter as well as by phone and email - as the operations are carried out. Viewers will even be able to speak to surgeons by phone at appropriate points during some of the operations.
The surgery will be broadcast live to a studio audience at Wellcome Collection in London, as well as to TV viewers at home, from some of the country's leading NHS hospitals: Papworth, Southampton General, Addenbrooke's and King's College Hospital, London. Krishnan Guru-Murthy will host the programmes.
With the operations playing out in real time, viewers will gain an unprecedented understanding of the skill, precision and dexterity that make these surgeons the best in their fields as well as the challenges faced by surgical teams every day in hospitals around the UK.
Channel 4's Commissioning Editor for Science, David Glover, says: "Surgeons routinely teach and talk observers through operations. Now, for the first time, viewers will be able to interact with surgeons as they carry out life-changing procedures.
"We hope that the series will de-mystify surgery, encourage discussion and help viewers to understand their own bodies, as well as showing the care, dedication and skill that goes into modern surgery."
Francis Wells, a heart surgeon at Papworth Hospital who is taking part in the series, says: "Most people have no idea what goes on inside their bodies and I believe that the more they understand and appreciate how their bodies work, the more they may look after their own health. This event will also give people the rare insight into how we carry out this surgery and to appreciate the skill of the whole team involved."
Clare Matterson, Wellcome Trust Director of Medicine, Society and History says: "This collaboration is an important addition to Wellcome Collection’s lively events programme, which we have built up over the last two years. Although surgery and medicine are often seen on television, we are bringing, for the first time, a real and lived experience of surgery into the public realm. We believe that this is important to enable people to engage directly with the worlds of medicine and science. We are delighted to be working in partnership with Channel 4 and Windfall on this project."
'The Operation: Surgery Live' will be shown on Channel 4 on 25-28 May. More details about the series can be found on the Channel 4 website. Tickets to be part of the studio audience are available from the Wellcome Collection website or by calling 020 7611 2222. The events at Wellcome Collection are free but must be booked in advance.
For more information, please contact Matthew Robinson on 0121 777 4277, 07909 684746 or matthew@mrtvpr.co.uk. For press tickets, please contact Mike Findlay on m.findlay@wellcome.ac.uk.
Image: Leading heart surgeon Francis Wells and his team performing an open-heart operation at Papworth Hospital. Credit: Ben Edwards, Wellcome Images
Notes for editors
The Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending over £600 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing.
Wellcome Collection
The Wellcome Trust's former headquarters, the Wellcome Building on London's Euston Road, has been redesigned by Hopkins Architects to become a new £30 million public venue. Free to all, Wellcome Collection explores the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future. The building comprises three galleries, a public events space, the Wellcome Library, a café, a bookshop, conference facilities and a members' club.
Papworth Hospital
Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK's leading specialist centres for the diagnosis and treatment of heart and lung disease, treating over 20 000 inpatient and day cases and over 30 000 outpatients each year from across the UK. It has established a reputation for innovation and leading-edge research and carried out the UK's first successful heart transplant in 1979, followed by Europe's first successful heart and lung transplant in 1984 and the world's first heart, lung and liver transplant in 1986.
Southampton General Hospital
Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest acute trusts in England. It provides local hospital services to half a million people living in Southampton and south-west Hampshire and specialist services including neurosciences, cardiac care and specialist children's services to more than three million people in central southern England and the Channel Islands.
Addenbrooke's Hospital
Addenbrooke’s Hospital is part of Cambridge University Hospitals, one of the country's leading NHS Foundation Trusts. Rated as 'best performing' by the Healthcare Commission, it has a worldwide reputation for innovation and excellence that covers research, teaching and patient-centred care. The Trust took the top prize in the recent 'Health Service Journal' Awards, where judges identified it as the best acute hospital in the NHS.
King's College Hospital
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK's largest and busiest teaching hospitals, with over 6000 staff providing around 700 000 patient contacts a year. King's provides a full range of local hospital services and is also recognised internationally for its work in liver disease and transplantation, neurosciences, cardiac and haemato-oncology. King's is part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre, a pioneering collaboration between King's College London, and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.