Holby City a minimum 50 episodes per series, delivered from December 2017 with no break in transmission and produced from the existing production base at BBC Elstree Centre. BBC Studios was announced as the winning bidder and will continue to produce the show through to 2020. "Holby City" was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the BBC medical drama "Casualty", which is set in the emergency department of the fictional Holby City Hospital. Young wanted to explore what happened to patients treated in "Casualty" once they were taken away to the hospital's surgical wards. While "Casualty" scope
Holby City describing real nursing work in contrast as "very post-watershed". In November 2009, Antony Sumara, CEO of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Hospital Trust, wrote a column criticising "Holby City" for misrepresenting real hospital life. Tom Sutcliffe of "The Independent" reviewed a December 2009 episode poorly, finding it "astonishing" that any patients leave Holby General alive, as the staff are "so busy looking stricken or lovelorn at each other". In December 2003, "The Times" Libby Purves wrote a critical opinion piece, observing that "Holby City" medical staff are often depicted getting drunk in clubs, but afterwards are able to function properly