NHS surgeon discusses performing surgery on TV for new Netflix series

Mr Ibraheim El-Daly, 41, who grew up in northwest London, has been a Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon at King's College Hospital for five years. Here he tells RT how it feels to be filmed on the job.

DRILLING DOWN I studied at City St George's, University of London, and during my rotations, I fell in love with orthopaedic surgery. I liked the power tools – the screwdriver, mallet, and my favourite, the drill! I did my five-year orthopaedic training at the Royal London Hospital. I then spent a year at Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, a major trauma centre in Paris. I came back to a job at King’s College and it was very fast-paced. I thrive on stress.

THE NHS GOES GLOBAL I appeared in Channel 4’s Emergency and 24 hours in A&E. The same production company behind those shows told us Netflix loved them and would like to do their own medical series. With Netflix it’s a great opportunity to expose the NHS to the world.

TEXTING ABOUT TRAUMA A lot of the problems you hear in the media about the NHS are true, like trying to get an appointment, but our major trauma network is second to none. We even have WhatsApp groups with all the major trauma surgeons – there’s a national pelvic group and a national upper limb group. We post cases and discuss them. I feel sad that we don't promote ourselves, because we have such amazing experience and expertise that we should be selling our services. The NHS could benefit by going to countries and helping them create the same level of trauma care that we deliver for citizens of the UK.

ON-CALL FOR THE CAMERA The camera crew followed me everywhere I went, but they never got in my way. They were constantly checking they weren’t doing anything that would cause an issue, or they’d say, “Are you OK? Do you want us to take a step back?” The only time I’d switch off my mic was when I went to the loo! There were usually two, sometimes three, cameras. Before I saw a patient, the production team asked them or their relatives if it was OK to film them. Then the camera crew would either get the green light or stand down.

COMPLICATED CASES They filmed me doing multiple surgeries before they selected the case for the show, where the patient, Jared, was at risk of losing his leg after a motorcycle accident. He had an open fracture that was a high-energy injury, which refers to trauma caused by a significant force, so it can’t be closed by just suturing it together again. While I was operating, I explained the process for the cameras like I would to a junior trainee. King’s is a big teaching hospital and the biggest medical school in Europe, so I’m used to having trainees. You have to pass on your knowledge – otherwise, what’s the point?

A RISK WORTH TAKING Most consultants say no to being filmed, because they’re worried about something bad happening. I'm dealing with complex, unpredictable injuries, so there’s a much higher risk of patient dissatisfaction and problems, but I'm confident in my skills, so I'm not too concerned about what others say or think. Every surgeon encounters complications – there was one that happened intraoperatively on Emergency where I had to intervene to stop it from becoming a disaster – but we discuss them and learn from them so we can better ourselves. We're constantly pushing the boundaries and improving.

Critical: Between Life and Death is available on Netflix from 23rd July.

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