Emergency (1959 TV series) Emergency (1959 TV series) Emergency is an Australian television series produced by GTV-9 in 1959. The series was set in the busy casualty department of a major Melbourne hospital, and is notable for being one of the first-ever dramas shown on Australian television. Made by Melbourne's GTV-9 in co-operation with the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and based on Britain's "Emergency Ward 10", "Emergency" starred Brian James as Dr. Geoffrey Thompson, Syd Conabere as orderly George Rogers, and Judith Godden as Nurse Jill Adamson. Moira Carleton also featured as Matron Evans. The series was produced primarily in the GTV-9 studio, with brief
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