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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

24 hours in A&E

65 replies

1down · 19/07/2023 21:47

How do they get the unwell or injured patients concent? Do they film first then ask?
Watching it ATM and a lad has been taken to the hospital after being run over. He was airlifted in. In no condition to agree to something. So do they film all his medical stuff to the point he can say yes and if he says no they then delete?? His family didn't get to the hospital till an hour later. And they can't give his permission anyway.
Because if it happens like that it seems like a total violation of his privacy.
Anyone know?

OP posts:
CactusUmbrella · 20/07/2023 08:35

@Justleaveitblankthen You'll be unsurprised to hear that nope, they don't pay you at all!

My sibling's emergency was one entirely of their own doing (without saying too much, they made a decision that carried a lot of risk and ended up life changing) so they decided to continue as part of the episode to hopefully show others the dangers of making this particular decision.

Otherwise, I don't think we would've ended up being a part of it.

Original poster
1down · 20/07/2023 08:49

Dontcallmescarface · 20/07/2023 08:32

If you're so concerned about violation of privacy why are you watching the program?

Because I turned it over and it was on. As I'd not seen it before I didn't know what to expect

OP posts:
OurFlagMeansAfternoonTea · 20/07/2023 09:10

I know an A&E nurse who worked in one of the hospitals. The filming is done a long time before the show actually comes out. There is a lot of work to do with editing, consent, interviews etc. Sometimes staff are pixelated out I guess because they didn't want to be in it.

I've only watched it a few times, but they don't seem to include anyone actually dying.
I once worked in a magazine office and a TV company suggested doing a reality show about our office. Luckily the Editor said "no", but I wouldn't have agreed to be in the show. I saw a reality show about the editor of a different magazine who I'd worked for. They made her out to be a total drunk, which she wasn't.

SlipSlidinAway · 20/07/2023 09:20

1down · 19/07/2023 22:28

I think my issue with it is that it has already been filmed before the person is able to concent. So their privacy has already been invaded.
Seems incredibly insensitive

Totally agree. Even if you say no later, you've still had a bunch of non-medical strangers watching you in a vulnerable state. And recording your experience - whether or not you later say it can be used.

Bluelightbaby · 21/07/2023 00:18

Yes they can deny consent. Nobody is forced into doing it.

Bluelightbaby · 21/07/2023 00:20

I presume they don’t use that footage so ask family ?

CostelloJones · 21/07/2023 13:56

Not the same program but where we live the hospital got in a lot of trouble. They were filming in the hospital, in the maternity area and it was not adequately signed. Several families were really upset when they were told when receiving bad news about their baby had been filmed without them realising. Obviously it didn’t go any further because they didn’t give consent. We may or may not have been one of these families and it may or may not have made a very distressing time worse…

the film company were fined

CostelloJones · 21/07/2023 13:57

I just realised I worded that really badly! But you get the gist

FixTheBone · 21/07/2023 14:08

I've worked in two hospitals where these series were being filmed...

I wouldn't say privacy is being invaded. No film crews involved either time, everything done with preinstalled fixed angle cameras. And if the person decides not to consent, the footage is never seen / used.

24 hours in A&E is one of the few medical programs I've watched, precisely because it doesn't have a load of medical detail in it, but a lot of the human interaction and back story which I often lose touch with at the sharp end of things.

Womanofcustard · 21/07/2023 14:12

What purpose do these programmes serve?

lljkk · 21/07/2023 14:13

yeah the human stories are the best bit of 24h.in.A&E.

I have seen a few episodes where the patient died; I thought it was well handled what happened. Celebration of the lives they lived, every time.

There are bolshy awful patients, watch Attacks in A&E. But they don't get on 24h.in.A&E.

Prescottdanni123 · 21/07/2023 15:52

@FixTheBone

I get that there isn't a camera man standing over you and it is all fixed cameras but it still makes me uncomfortable. I'd be paranoid someone would watch the footage before I denied consent and just the fact that it existed in the first place would bother me.

It just feels like they are feeding off other people's suffering. Like I said in an earlier post, someone comes in with a sprained ankle, they probably won't be bothered about having footage of that. But if they hear about unusual and serious/life threatening case just brought in, the producers and directors must be jumping up and down with excitement.

Do they get pushy if you say no? In an "Just think about it" or "OK, we'll check in with you after you've been discharged, just in case you change your mind," or "Let us just show you the footage and see how you feel then" kind of way? That is when I'd probably go from a polite "No, thank you" to "There's the door. Please fuck off".

Original poster
1down · 21/07/2023 16:30

Bluelightbaby · 21/07/2023 00:18

Yes they can deny consent. Nobody is forced into doing it.

If you go in unconscious then you are also not giving concent. They record then ask after.
So the procedure or intervention has already happened. Its already been recorded. Even if you don't want it on tv its on a hard drive or disc somewhere

OP posts:
Original poster
1down · 21/07/2023 16:31

CostelloJones · 21/07/2023 13:56

Not the same program but where we live the hospital got in a lot of trouble. They were filming in the hospital, in the maternity area and it was not adequately signed. Several families were really upset when they were told when receiving bad news about their baby had been filmed without them realising. Obviously it didn’t go any further because they didn’t give consent. We may or may not have been one of these families and it may or may not have made a very distressing time worse…

the film company were fined

That situation is the type of thing I wondered about.
Saying 'OK, we won't use it' after you have been recorded is not the same as not recording in the first place.
It's horrible that your pain was made worse.x

OP posts:
YerAWizardHarry · 21/07/2023 16:32

My father in laws fishing boat was featured in a recent Coastguard documentary. No permission obtained at all. They had their faces blurred out but the first they knew of it was when a colleague watched it when it aired and sent a text round

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