Casualty reveals another staff redundancy as Holby City crumbles under new rules in BBC iPlayer release
Warning: Contains spoilers for tonight's episode of Casualty, which airs at 9pm on BBC One or can be streamed now on BBC iPlayer.
After huge changes implemented by the CQC (Care Quality Commission), yet another Casualty favourite has volunteered for redundancy.
Earlier in this boxset – which is titled Learning Curve – Holby City's emergency department failed a spot inspection, which was sparked following a call made by resident doctor Matty Linlaker (Aron Julius). He was concerned about the hospital's practices, and was alarmed by the death of a patient in a corridor.
The follow-up inspection didn't go smoothly either. Matty was advised by fellow newbie Kim Chang (Jasmine Bayes) to incorrectly perform a lumbar puncture, which resulted in a girl being paralysed.
As a result, CQC inspector Ceri Mayland (Gwyneth Strong) ordered the hospital to divert all major trauma cases to St James's, which is on the other side of the city. Feeling like he'd failed in his duty as clinical lead, Flynn Byron (Olly Rix) offered himself for a planned redundancy.
In today's episode, paramedics Iain Dean (Michael Stevenson) and Indie Jankowski (Naomi Wakszlak) headed to a multi-story carpark, where an exhausted mother had accidentally crushed her baby with the vehicle.
Iain quickly realised that the old and outdated ambulance wouldn't make the journey to St James's, and warned Jan Jenning (Di Botcher) that they would have to divert over to Holby City. As he spun around, the engine began to smoke and they had to call for backup.
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In the ED, Stevie Nash (Elinor Lawless) was firmly against admitting the child, telling Jan that if the CQC discovered what they'd done, it would only make matters worse. The rest of the staff were stood around eating pizza, having wheelchair races and twiddling their thumbs with boredom - this would surely be the wake up call they needed, and Stevie finally agreed.
Iain carried the child towards a housing estate and managed to stabilise the baby, before taking him to Holby's resus. The youngster began to arrest and CPR was performed, but he fortunately survived.
Meanwhile, senior staff nurse Rida Amaan (Sarah Seggari) discovered that failing another inspection would mean losing two staff members, including someone on her payroll.
A patient was brought in that the doctors reckoned was a mystery shopper on behalf of the CQC, and Rida waltzed over to confront her. To her shock, Rash Masum (Neet Mohan) revealed that the patient's bloods were elevated and that she was a friend of the hospital's CEO.
Realising her huge mistake, she told Flynn that she was prepared to be put forward for redundancy.
Is this the end of Rida's time at the infirmary?
Casualty airs tonight at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
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Authors
Michael Adams is the Soaps Editor at Radio Times, covering all of the hot gossip and spoilers from Weatherfield to Walford, Emmerdale to Hollyoaks and everywhere in-between. He joined the team from Metro, where he spent two years as a Soaps Reporter and previously worked on the sets of both Coronation Street and Emmerdale.
