More than 1,000 Queen's Medical Centre patients agreed to be filmed for 24 Hours in A&E, the show's producers have said. The Channel 4 show was filmed at the Nottingham hospital for the latest series - the first time it has been set outside London.
Rachael Smith, an executive producer for the Garden TV, which creates 24 Hours In A&E, said the number of people who consented to be filmed was "incredible". The show has a two-stage consent process, with patients first being asked if they are okay to be filmed before later being asked if they wanted to be featured on TV.
"Over 1,000 patients consented to being filmed, it's quite incredible actually," said Ms Smith, who has also worked on shows such as One Born Every Minute and Educating Manchester. "It's a much higher consent ratio compared to St George's but it's quite hard to compare like for like.
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"We were really encouraged by how many people consented." The first 29 series of the show had been set in London, first at King's College Hospital and then at St George's Hospital.
After Channel 4 started to discuss the idea of moving the show out of the capital, Ms Smith, originally from Loughborough, saw the chance to bring it to the East Midlands. "Nottingham is a major trauma centre which is one of the main factors in choosing a hospital. You've got all the specialisms on one site so Nottingham was a very obvious choice to do that," she told Nottinghamshire Live.
"I'm from the East Midlands and when it was discussed I felt really strongly that the story of the East Midlands hadn't really been told. We can tell the stories of social history and people's lives and I don't feel those stories have been told so it was a real gift for me to bring it to an area where my family grew up."
Speaking about the differences she has noticed since moving the show to QMC, she added: "Essentially it's a community hospital isn't it. Some people will come in and people on the desk might know them or be related to them, there's connections and it feels like a hospital that genuinely serves its community.
"There's a lot of humour, a lot of warmth and power in who they are. Every city has it's own personality and sense of who they are. I hope we've been able to portray it the best we can."
More than 9,000 hours of footage was captured during 46 days of filming across September and October 2021. There were 126 fixed cameras throughout QMC, but there were only ever seven filming at a time, said Ms Smith.
The second episode of 24 Hours in A&E airs at 9pm on Channel 4 on Tuesday (January 10).
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