Paul O'Dohertypreviews RTÉ's new fly-on-the-wall documentary series, Surgeons, which starts next Monday
Following on from last year's success with Junior Doctors, Mint Productions' new four-part fly-on-the-wall documentary series, Surgeons(Monday, RTÉ 1, 9.30pm), is a timely piece of public relations for a profession - the consultant surgeon - who, if you're to believe the sign-and-deliver hype coming out of the Department of Health, might seriously consider a career in television if they're out of work at the end of the month.
The first programme features consultant neurosurgeons, Ciaran Bolger (Beaumont) and Charlie Marks (Cork University) and two of their patients, both of whom suffer from tumours.
It's an interesting attempt to get into the mindset of what many consider an arrogant and aloof profession. Not surprisingly, many of the consultants signed up for the programme to counter poor public perception, and to get their own message across.
Marks's story was a little different. He wasn't initially interested in doing the series until it was pointed out to him that the production company already had a Dublin neurosurgeon on board: "We've always been the poor relatives down here (in Cork), so I said I'd do it partly for that reason and partially because doctors need better public relations presence at the moment.
"The other reason was Ciaran Bolger and I both feel that neurosurgeons have had a raw deal in Ireland and that there has been no expansion in neurosurgical numbers, in real terms, in 25 years. Today, there are 10 consultants whereas then there were eight. In Britain, the numbers have doubled in less than the same period."
Arnie Hill, a general surgeon at Beaumont hospital with a special interest in breast cancer, who worked with Mint Productions on Junior Doctors, sees the series as a vehicle "to raise the awareness of breast cancer and to make the point that having a diagnosis of breast cancer is not as terrifying an experience as many people perceive, and there are aspects to the programme where the good side of cancer management is portrayed".
Bolger gives the more populist assessment of the programme. "The operations were all done in real-time. Both patients featured in our programme needed operations for brain tumours, and my patient needed to be woken up during the operation so that I could operate on her.
"Viewers might find that particularly interesting if they're into the gory stuff."
It's a view shared by Freddie Woods, a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Mater hospital and at Our Lady's in Crumlin, who is featured in episode two, along with Mark Redmond from Our Lady's. "I would hope the heart episode isn't too gory - they certainly see a lot of the surgery - and if people like ER, they'll definitely love this. Viewers will also see consultants dealing and interacting with the patients and their team, and realise that what we do is a team effort, not just a solo-performance."
Although the programme goes by the moniker Surgeons, the real human interest is in the engaging patients and their stories, and the progress they make over the course of the programme. Unlike the set-up in Junior Doctors, the programme doesn't necessarily follow the surgeons around all day long, in and out of their privacy, preferring to drop in occasionally - the interviews being somewhat less invasive than the surgery they perform.
In conclusion, Woods clears up the myth about the consultants' God-like perception, stressing that "public expectations are very high these days, that anything can be done and that it can be done to order.
"That's not the way things are in hospital life and in illness and disease. We've made enormous advances with technology but we don't have complete control over life." More's the pity.
Narrated by Daire O'Brien, produced by Pamela Drynan and directed by Traolach Ó Buachalla, and with subsequent programmes including, plastic surgeon Margaret O'Donnell (St Vincent's) and orthopaedic surgeons Frank Dowling (Our Lady's) and Sean Dudeny (Cappagh), Surgeonslooks like becoming a really worthwhile addition to what has become RTÉ's Monday-night documentary medical-slot.
Surgeons will air on RTÉ 1 on Monday April 23rd at 9.30pm