Island Life Savers

Dr Kushik Lalla on why he loves treating the people in the far reaches of Scotland.

- Judy Ewens

NEW FACTUAL

Island Medics

MONDAY-FRIDAY / BBC1 / 9.15AM

Treating an oil rig worker who has taken a bad fall, a sheep shearer who’s cut his hand or a motorcyclist who’s collided with a seagull is all in a day’s work for the medical staff at the UK’s most remote hospital – the Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick, Shetland.

In BBC1’s new 10-part series, Island Medics, we see how the doctors, nurses and paramedics at the hospital work hand-in-hand with the coastguard and lifeboat crews to provide emergency and medical care to the islands’ 23,000 residents, as well as those working on oil rigs or fishing boats.

In the first episode, Brian, an ultrasound engineer on an oil platform, is airlifted to Shetland by the coastguard after falling and possibly breaking his neck.

At the hospital, Brian is treated by senior A&E and surgical doctor Dr Kushik Lalla, who here tells TV Times what it is like to live and work so far from the mainland…