The usual extra demand on the NHS in winter is exasperated by winter storm after storm battering the UK amid a flu outbreak. With A&E departments across the country full, all non-urgent operations are cancelled across Britain.
Head and neck surgeon David Grant returns from his annual leave to find his surgical list has snowballed. The parents of a 4-year-old must decide whether to opt for an innovative treatment.
The advice from the NHS to cancel all non-urgent operations is taking a heavy toll at Nottingham Hospital. We follow the stories of three patients waiting for operations not knowing when they will take place.
This edition focuses on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Queen's Medical Centre. A 4-year-old in septic shock is rushed the 90-miles from Hull as the two nearer ICU's at Leeds and Sheffield are full.
The cases of a 93-year-old man with dementia, an 83-year-old woman and a 4-month-old baby illustrate the difficulties of getting patients who are medically well enough to return home to do so.
Although the critical care unit at Nottingham has 58 beds it is full most days. Staff must balance the competing demands of patients recovering from major surgery and life-threatening cases admitted through A&E.