CLINICAL JUDGEMENTS

By the English author of a multi-volume dynasty saga, which twinned medicine and theater in its historical milieu: a contemporary, London-set hospital soap that features an outsize cast of characters, all of Which will have their say, or incisions, or tantrums. Dr. Kate Sayers is one of the more scrupulous surgeons at Old East Hospital. Here, she and the greedy sort of medicos, administrators, politicians, nurses, aides, patients, and members of the community tangle with a net-bag of controversial matters: a sex change operation done when beds are needed for life-threatening surgery; use of fetal tissue in treatment for Parkinson's disease; mandatory AIDS testing; the threat of a hospital close-down at the next swing of a budget are, etc., etc. Between surgeries, Kate makes love with divorcing talk-show host Oliver; and another woman doctor who did a life-saving abortion (but the fetus was dismayingly advanced in development) and Kate are doubly in the soup as the media moves in. Meanwhile, a group of apprentice nurses blab what they should not; patients of varying health and histories soldier through; and the bed shortage threatens to evict a dying man, while another elder's operation is postponed to accommodate a politician. Administrators clash, and a demonstration to save the hospital churns outside. A flub-and-scrub sudser, packed tight with troubles, but the British slang might be a bit off-putting here.