TV Pick of the Week: Malpractice - review by Yvette Huddleston

On a busy night in the A&E department of a large Leeds hospital, just as Dr Edwards is dealing with the overdose case, a young boy with a life-threatening gunshot wound arrives, brought there by his father who is brandishing a gun. In the circumstances and with a shortage of beds, Edwards has a split-second decision to make, and attends to the gunshot victim, hurriedly instructing a junior colleague to take care of the drug overdose victim. That proves to be a bad decision and one with far-reaching consequences. The father of the dead young woman, Edith, believes his daughter’s death was the result of negligence. So a detailed investigation into Dr Edwards’ actions on the night of the incident begins.

Before long we find out that Dr Edwards has some dark secrets. She has become reliant on opioid painkillers herself and is embroiled in an unwise situation helping out a former colleague which, if discovered, could end her career. It then becomes a nail-biting race against time as Dr Edwards tries to clear her name and uncover a sinister plot involving a private clinic that is running an illegal operation selling prescription drugs.

Screenwriter Grace Ofori-Attah spent ten years working as a doctor in the NHS so she knows her stuff and the picture she paints here of our national health service is a pretty bleak one – her script pulls no punches in its depiction of the depth of the crisis. Burnt-out medical staff who are still recovering from the trauma of working on the frontline during a global pandemic are struggling to keep going – and are not being given adequate support. Staffing problems mean that shifts get longer and longer, junior staff who are not necessarily equipped to deal with certain situations are being forced to take on responsibility that they are not yet ready for – mistakes are inevitably going to happen.

None of this is particularly easy to watch and Algar is so convincing in her role, portraying the gradual deterioration of her character’s physical and mental wellbeing so authentically, that you fear for her. As contemporary social commentary, Malpractice is clear-sighted and unflinching – and as a thriller it is well-constructed and totally compelling.