17 April 2009
The cameras are being packed away and the sound equipment taken down, as filming for a brand new ITV documentary comes to an end at Epsom, Sutton and St Helier hospitals.
Surgeons in Training, a three-part fly-on-the-wall show set to be aired in autumn, follows twelve trainee surgeons in total, including three of the Trust 's trainees, Nicola Robertson, Andy Al Rais and Rose Johns.
As the project nears completion, producer Sam Grace looks back at his eight months 'on location ' at the Trust. He said: "Filming here has been a real privilege. We have been fortunate enough to follow three charming trainees through whom we have experienced almost every aspect of what it 's really like to be a surgeon. I 'm sure people who watch the show will be amazed by what they see and the challenges that trainee surgeons face.
"Nicola, Andy and Rose have been very brave and tolerant in allowing us to follow their every move since last October, patiently answering our questions and explaining to us what was going on at each stage. We have been lucky enough to film them on call, on the wards, in theatre and at home. We 've even seen them perform their first operations.
"The past eight months ' filming has been a pleasure. At every stage we have found all members of staff to be friendly and helpful, even those who were camera shy and made it quite clear that they didn 't wish to appear on TV! Everyone has done their best to be cooperative and to make us feel really welcome. This series could not have been made without the support of Nicola, Andy and Rose and all the staff with whom they work."
All of the patients set to be featured in the documentary gave their consent to be filmed beforehand, and the number of local people willing to take part came as a pleasant surprise to the crew. But it wasn 't just the patients that were co-operative on camera. According to Sam, the trainee surgeons were naturals on the screen: "From the word go they have taken to being filmed and have done so with incredible confidence and charm. We tried to film as unobtrusively as possible in order to enable them to get on with their jobs without having to think about us being there. The long corridors gave us great opportunities to interview our trainees as they strode from patient to patient and I think they quickly forgot about the camera."
The aim of the series is to show how modern surgeons are trained and will look at the very first steps that young doctors take on the road to becoming the next generation of consultant surgeons. By filming over such a long period of time, the program sees Nicola, Andy and Rose make real progress as trainees in terms of their experience and confidence.
But the hard work isn 't over yet for the crew behind the new show. Sam said: "Though we may be near to finishing our filming, the project is nowhere near completion! We have hours and hours of footage to view and edit, so for the next six weeks I will be in an editing suite reliving the last eight months. Having enjoyed filming so much, I 'm looking forward to it."
Surgeons in Training is currently scheduled to be aired on ITV1 later this year. Exact details will be published on the Trust 's website closer to the time.
