History of the National Health Service Emergency Ward 10 was first broadcast in 1957 on ITV and ran until 1967 and followed the life and loves of the staff and patients of the fictionalised Oxbridge General. ITV later followed this up with General Hospital which borrowed much from Emergency Ward 10 in terms of its themes and focus. The idea of a medical hospital as a suitable and popular setting for a soap opera continued to take root in the 1980s. Casualty, set in an A&E department, was first broadcast in 1986 and has since become the longest running medical drama in the world. At a
General Hospital with the show until their deaths in 1996 and 1991 respectively. They were joined a year later by Rachel Ames who remains to date the longest serving actress on an ABC soap opera, having been continuously on the show from 1964 to 2007. "General Hospital" was the second soap to air on ABC (after the short-lived "Road to Reality", which aired for several months during the 1960–61 season). In 1964, a sister soap was created for "General Hospital", "The Young Marrieds"; it ran for two years, and was canceled because of low ratings. "General Hospital" also spawned a primetime spinoff