"Who's Most Deserving!" The Hospital Reality Show
source: http://www.thisisbasingstoke.co.uk/mostpopular.var.2446802.mostviewed.hospital_hosts_live_te...
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Basingstoke hospital was at the centre of a prime-time Sky News debate on the controversial dilemma of NHS rationing.
Theatre number two became the scene of an interactive media operation that brought together a panel of eminent thinkers and top news anchor Dermot Murnaghan for The Big Debate.
The event was part of a week of programmes about the agonising issue of which patients can get life-saving treatments on the NHS.
Viewers were invited to vote for the case they felt was most deserving of treatment funded by the NHS.
The hour-long programme - part of Sky News' Price of Life season - was broadcast live on Thursday at 8pm, amid the busy main theatre ward where 200 operations are carried out each week.
Dermot Murnaghan told The Gazette the news team wanted to broadcast from the hub of a real hospital.
He said: "We wanted to bring the debate to where clinicians are making these tough decisions on who gets what, making these life and death decisions on a day-to-day basis.
"Basingstoke hospital is also one of those trusts that is forward-thinking and brings the public into its day-to-day running, so we thought it was an excellent choice."
The hospital, which is the town's largest employer, with 2,400 staff, was designated as a foundation trust in December 2006, as part of a transfer of responsibility from central government to a local level.
Mary Edwards, chief executive of Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust, was among the guests who took part in the debate.
She was also involved in the founding of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), which has drawn criticism for advising the NHS on dropping drugs not thought to be cost-effective.
She said: "One reason why we're hosting the debate is that we want to be open about the human decisions that have to be made and recognise the benefit of having a mature conversation about this."
Mrs Edwards added that Basingstoke and Deane faces a future dilemma of rationing treatment because there is a predicted 25 per cent growth in the over-65s by 2013.
Earlier that day within the theatre, four breast operations had been carried out before it was scrubbed clean for the TV crew to set up their equipment in the theatre, ready for the one-hour-debate.
Among the panellists dissecting the dil-emma were Baroness Warnock, an esteemed ethicist and pragmatist on rationing, and Professor Paul Goddard, who took the opposite view by fiercely criticising rationing, warning that the NHS was heading for meltdown because of its money-saving obsession.
As part of the interactive programme, viewers at home were given case studies and asked to decide who best deserved treatment.
The case studies included:
* a premature baby needing treatment because it was born weighing only 1lb 6oz
* a breast cancer patient needing a costly drug
* darts champion Andy Fordham, who is seeking a liver transplant after years of sinking pints of lager
* an elderly patient nearing the end of his natural life.
The majority chose the cancer patient as most deserving of NHS treatment.
Theatre number two became the scene of an interactive media operation that brought together a panel of eminent thinkers and top news anchor Dermot Murnaghan for The Big Debate.
The event was part of a week of programmes about the agonising issue of which patients can get life-saving treatments on the NHS.
Viewers were invited to vote for the case they felt was most deserving of treatment funded by the NHS.
The hour-long programme - part of Sky News' Price of Life season - was broadcast live on Thursday at 8pm, amid the busy main theatre ward where 200 operations are carried out each week.
Dermot Murnaghan told The Gazette the news team wanted to broadcast from the hub of a real hospital.
He said: "We wanted to bring the debate to where clinicians are making these tough decisions on who gets what, making these life and death decisions on a day-to-day basis.
"Basingstoke hospital is also one of those trusts that is forward-thinking and brings the public into its day-to-day running, so we thought it was an excellent choice."
The hospital, which is the town's largest employer, with 2,400 staff, was designated as a foundation trust in December 2006, as part of a transfer of responsibility from central government to a local level.
Mary Edwards, chief executive of Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust, was among the guests who took part in the debate.
She was also involved in the founding of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), which has drawn criticism for advising the NHS on dropping drugs not thought to be cost-effective.
She said: "One reason why we're hosting the debate is that we want to be open about the human decisions that have to be made and recognise the benefit of having a mature conversation about this."
Mrs Edwards added that Basingstoke and Deane faces a future dilemma of rationing treatment because there is a predicted 25 per cent growth in the over-65s by 2013.
Earlier that day within the theatre, four breast operations had been carried out before it was scrubbed clean for the TV crew to set up their equipment in the theatre, ready for the one-hour-debate.
Among the panellists dissecting the dil-emma were Baroness Warnock, an esteemed ethicist and pragmatist on rationing, and Professor Paul Goddard, who took the opposite view by fiercely criticising rationing, warning that the NHS was heading for meltdown because of its money-saving obsession.
As part of the interactive programme, viewers at home were given case studies and asked to decide who best deserved treatment.
The case studies included:
* a premature baby needing treatment because it was born weighing only 1lb 6oz
* a breast cancer patient needing a costly drug
* darts champion Andy Fordham, who is seeking a liver transplant after years of sinking pints of lager
* an elderly patient nearing the end of his natural life.
The majority chose the cancer patient as most deserving of NHS treatment.
