The one person who would be happiest of all would be ShopGirl. Just think of all the new locations she would get to hunt down!:D
BTW ShopGirl-Isn't the house in this picture the one that the Doc wanted to buy in 'Doc Martin and the Legend of the Cloutie'?
NewPark:
Instead of a locum they could, as part of the overall scheme, turn it into a 'new way' of training GP's and the Doc could have an intern instead of a locum. They could use the old Fern Cottage surgery to house him/her and have that be an 'off hours/emergency' clinic where people could go to so the first person to get 'called out' would be the intern and he/she would only call the Doc in if it was something they could not handle. That would also serve to give the Doc and Louisa more private/family time. Some young thang as the intern to add a bit of 'eye candy' would also draw in some new, younger, viewers to broaden the audience base which all broadcast entites love and add additional storylines.
Yes, I think that is a good plan. However, instead of eye candy, I have had my eye on Miranda Hart in that role. Wouldn't you love to see her striding up the street with DM?:D
Yes, I think that is a good plan. However, instead of eye candy, I have had my eye on Miranda Hart in that role. Wouldn't you love to see her striding up the street with DM?:D
But I think she is fully booked.
The one 'good' thing about Doc Martin is that the show is shot every other year and when it is being shot it is for a couple months only and after most other programs have wrapped up their shooting schedules. If an actor is on a tight schedule they can save all the scenes they need to be in to be shot during the time they are available. They do not shoot the scenes sequentially (as we see them in an episode) for every episode, that would not be cost effective. They have all the episodes written by the time they go on location and schedule shooting to be the most efficient usage of time and resources.
Am on a plane now on WiFi. In S6 I want to see the Doc more vulnerable again. So now we have hemophobia gone, head banging largely gone, horrible parents gone, romantic rival gone. When DM is vulnerable, he's so much more sympathetic. Without that, he often becomes the lout, the insensitive epithet-thrower, the rigid anachronist, the scold. the frequent protagonist. Who wants that? Not Louisa, not this viewer! I want to love the Doc again - not just yesterday's Doc, but today's Doc. Just sayin. :)yy
Yes, I think that is a good plan. However, instead of eye candy, I have had my eye on Miranda Hart in that role. Wouldn't you love to see her striding up the street with DM?:D
But I think she is fully booked.
NewPark - I think you and I are on the same wave length. Off and on I have thought that Miranda Hart could appear in an episode as a half sister of DM in a comedic role. She could be a daughter of Christopher Ellingham and a "lady friend" who had Miranda, unbeknownst to the doc! Now, wouldn't that complete the Ellingham family!
Portwenn has a population of 721 pretty small draw area for any enterprise. With a large hospital in Truro, about a half hour drive away, I thought DM already had the perfect set up to live in Portwenn and still be able to perform major surgery.
Portwenn has a population of 721 pretty small draw area for any enterprise. With a large hospital in Truro, about a half hour drive away, I thought DM already had the perfect set up to live in Portwenn and still be able to perform major surgery.
You missed the point entirely, reread the original post.
To use the example you express then why would all those major hospitals at Texas Medical Center build any satellite facilities and why would anyone want to 'slum' it by going to them when the largest and finest medical facility in the world is only (at maximum) a 45 minute drive away? Or why would anyone where NewPark lives go to the University of Michigan's satellite facilities when they can just drive to the main hospital itself?
Take a look at the map and see what is to the north and north east of Port Wenn (Port Issac)-it is mostly farms and small towns that are even further from Truro then PW/PI. That would be the area that would be served by a facility as premised in my OP. In fact, using your logic, Doc Martin should not even be in Port Wenn-a town that small is a waste of a valuable GP and resources. He should be in Padstow, Wadebridge, Bodmin or Truro itself.
BTW-Have you ever driven the back roads in the UK? I have in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset when we did a road trip London to Bristol then down the Cornish coast to Penzance and back to London, mostly on the B roads because we wanted to take the 'scenic route'. There a 'half hour drive' can be 8 miles depending on road conditions, sheep on the road and weather.
PPS-Port Issac has 721 residents, the residents of Port Wenn have been stated in the series as being 996 IIRC.
Portwenn has a population of 721 pretty small draw area for any enterprise. With a large hospital in Truro, about a half hour drive away, I thought DM already had the perfect set up to live in Portwenn and still be able to perform major surgery.
Actually Truro is 32 miles and 54 minutes from Port Isaac according to Google Maps. Having driven around Port Isaac (and Truro) I think 54 minutes between the two is optimistic. A rather long commute.
But then, Port Wenn is not Port Isaac, is it? So, the "real" Port Wenn is probably located somewhere near St. Agnes on the North Cornwall coast, about 10 miles and 21 minutes from Truro. An easy commute for Mr. Ellingham (as surgeons are called in England).
Series 4 Episode 4
Driving Mr McLynn
Writer: Richard Stoneman
Producer: Minkie Spiro
Dr. Martin Ellingham is called to Louisa's new home after she has a dizzy spell while shifting furniture. Martin urges her to slow down, but is shocked to learn that Louisa has applied to be her school's headteacher again, with the previous one getting porphyria and having to leave. Martin refuses an application to an elderly couple for a disabled parking badge when the wheelchair bound man refuses to prove he is indeed disabled, thus when Martin tries to gain proof anyway, he ends up stabbing the man in his hand with a needle.
Actually Truro is 32 miles and 54 minutes from Port Isaac according to Google Maps. Having driven around Port Isaac (and Truro) I think 54 minutes between the two is optimistic. A rather long commute.
But then, Port Wenn is not Port Isaac, is it? So, the "real" Port Wenn is probably located somewhere near St. Agnes on the North Cornwall coast, about 10 miles and 21 minutes from Truro. An easy commute for Mr. Ellingham (as surgeons are called in England).
.
they've mentioned how long it takes a few times but I can't remember exactly. Lets hope it is your 21 minute easy commute for DMs sake - if that's the way they decide to take the show.
Just a quick report out on our call today. 13 people on the line! Great conversation leading to a few epiphanies that I imagine will subsequently show up in our talk on the forum. Maybe we were jinxed by the number 13: had technical difficulties that delayed us a bit at the beginning of the call - but the group pulled together and figured things out! It's always great to hear everyone's voice. The rumor that MC was joining us on the call was, sadly, unfounded.
When you get a private message at DS, do the contents of the message also show up on your e-mail account? Whenever I get a PM, I got a notification in one of my gmail accounts and the message contents are also displayed. but I don't know if I did something to the message settings to make that happen or whether it is the default.
When you get a private message at DS, do the contents of the message also show up on your e-mail account? Whenever I get a PM, I got a notification in one of my gmail accounts and the message contents are also displayed. but I don't know if I did something to the message settings to make that happen or whether it is the default.
Not sure, but if you look at your profile, there is likely a check box that sets that.
To paraphrase the late Princess Diana there are four 'people' in this marriage-the Doc, Louisa, James Henry and Port Wenn.
Let's take a look at the situation both from a storyline and practical standpoint. The following are in no particular order:
To me it would be rather unbelievable for either the Doc or Louisa to totally submit to the other and give up everything that makes them who they are for the sake of the relationship. That is a recipe for disaster. The one who gives up everything will eventually become resentful after the 'besotted with each other' phase passes and the grind of daily life sets in. The Doc was and is a gifted surgeon and diagnostician who is a very big fish trapped who has been dumped into a very small pond. Louisa is a talented and gifted teacher whose home is the small pond and is very uncomfortable anywhere else. This is who they are.
If the Doc and Louisa are going to truly 'make a go' of it they are going to need a bigger house. Personally I cannot see them living in the surgery-it is too small, leaves them with little privacy and the Doc would naturally be 'horrified' at exposing his son to all the diseases that traipse through the surgery on a daily basis. Both of Louisa's houses are no bigger and are very uncomfortable for the Doc-he is a giant amongst Lilliputians physically. The farm is one option but it would have to be renovated-this they could do storylinewise by either Aunt Ruth deciding to go back to Broadmoor or her staying and they renovate the farm and she lives with them in a 'granny annex'. One solution to this was presented in one of the fanfics (can't remember which) where the Colonel and his wife move to St. Austell and the Doc and Louisa buy the Applegarth-it is on the outskirts of town which would mean they could close to and walk to work. I do not know if that house is owned by someone or is a rental but it would be cheaper from a production standpoint to rent it for the summer and redress the rooms to make it look like the Doc and Louisa's home. It also has the size to make it easy for the cast and film crew to work in comfortably.
They are running out of goofy illnesses and wacky situations. They are beginning to fall into a 'Chinese takeout menu' formula where you choose an illness from column A, a weird resident of PW from column B, an 'emergency at the school' from column C, etc.. In order to keep the show fresh they need to shake things up a bit. Having the Doc do some surgery is one, maybe mix in a minor 'disaster' somewhere along the way so the Doc can show his chops and we can see the brilliance that we have heard about since episode one is another. Perhaps a disaster for the series 6 ending episode as a cliffhanger-who lives, who dies kind of thing. The problem with this from a practical standpoint is that it increases the cost of shooting episodes. They would need extra props, prosthetics and makeup, extra sets, extra crew, actors and other people. They do not need to show 'everything' ala 'Grey's Anatomy' to make it believable but they need to show something. I do not know their budget and financing so all of this would be dependent on that.
Now...
The following is a conjecture on how they could do this and make it work from a storyline and practical stand point. Please bear with me because this may seem a bit disjointed.
The cost of hospitalization is going through the roof as everyone knows. So the NHS starts a scheme where they set up 'satellite surgical outposts' working in conjunction with the local regional hospitals to do outpatient and minor emergency surgery. In Houston the big hospitals at Texas Medical Center (Methodist, Memorial Hermann, St. Luke's, Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor, UTMB) have satellite campuses and surgeries to do just this kind of thing. It saves them money because it is cheaper to do this offsite and it takes the load off the major facilities by farming out the routine stuff to the satellites so they can concentrate resources on the critically ill/injured. From a patient standpoint it is better because they don't have to go schlepping downtown and it is more comfortable because they and their families don't have to deal with some huge hospital maze and the costs associated with it (parking, getting there, etc.) and it is a smaller facility with local folks so it is more 'personal'. Instead of being lost they know where to go to have lunch while waiting for their loved one and it is a short drive to and from kind of thing. When I had to have my knee rebuilt it was done at one of Methodist's satellite facilities and from my standpoint it was a lot better than having to deal with going downtown. My sister is totally frightened of driving inside the loop and for good reason, hehehe.
What they could do is introduce a new 'initiative' where the (presumably) NHS begins to notice that older surgeons or ones who have made tons of cash and had enough of the rat race in London/Liverpool/Birmingham/Edinburgh surgeons who are still capable of preforming minor procedures are 'retiring' to become GP's in rural areas (not saying the Doc is old but use this as the premise). From a storyline point of view Chris Parsons could come up with the scheme and point out that the 'great surgeon and diagnostician' Doctor Ellingham would be an excellent person to set up a facility and use as a 'trial' for it. He could point out that PW is far enough away yet 'centrally located enough' to provide enough patients to do this yet close enough to a major medical facility in case a patient needs to be sent there after initial assessment. From a practical standpoint it would add costs to production but not that much; it would also offer an opportunity to introduce a couple new characters. They would need a new surgery so they just shoot the outside of some other building instead of Fern Cottage. They could build the new sets at the farm where they shoot already. As for the 'toys' (medical equipment) that might be included in this they can either rent them from a medical supply firm or shoot scenes at an existing facility that has them on a Sunday when they are not in use.
A sideline to this could be that the NHS avails themself of the expertise of Aunt Ruth and ask her to set up shop to provide psychological assessment and treatment. That way she could stay, write her book and still keep a 'hand' in her psychological work. PW has enough nutcases that would satisfy her from a psychological practice perspective I would think. It would also offer additional storylines to work with.
Everyone would be happy-the Doc would be back in the saddle yet be able to make Louisa happy by staying. Louisa would be happy because her village is being well cared for and she is being well cared for by the Doc. James Henry would be happy because his mummy and daddy would be caring for and loving him plus he would be learning all about new medical procedures that he could try out on his toys.:D As for Port Wenn? Well, the residents would probably still think the Doc is a tosser but would be happy that they don't have to go to Truro for minor procedures.
Adelie, I'm sorry to say I'm sure that is not feasible.
I don't think cc.cookie is off the mark. I think she is right on the mark.
Local clinic/hospitals--one is already set up with the hospital in Truro, only 45 minutes away and serving all the tiny little villages around in the moor area. I cannot imagine that another clinic in PW would make any kind of budgetary sense to the NHS. At all.
They could use a few more ambulances serving the area, though!
Working on the locations for S5, I just discovered that the church used for the funeral was not the same church used for the interior filming.
This intrigues me. Why would they haul such a large cast down to the far reaches of Cornwall just to film the exterior shots of that church? There are so many closer ones they could have used. Martin, Louisa, AR, Bert, Al, Joe, funeral director & his son are all there. Not to mention AR's car, Bert's van, Joe's police jeep and probably Martin's Lexus. All that way just for those exterior shots?
Now to try to find the church for the interiors. They have pretty distinctive windows, so I am hopeful..............
Just a quick report out on our call today. 13 people on the line! Great conversation leading to a few epiphanies that I imagine will subsequently show up in our talk on the forum. Maybe we were jinxed by the number 13: had technical difficulties that delayed us a bit at the beginning of the call - but the group pulled together and figured things out! It's always great to hear everyone's voice. The rumor that MC was joining us on the call was, sadly, unfounded.
Thank you so very much for arranging all of this. Lots of work, I know! Great fun and extra informative.
As for a disaster cliffhanger kind of thing they can do an awful lot with CGI for the wide shots and do the rest with bits and bobs of set dressing on location. CGI is relativly cheap but still adds an expense. They could do, like one of the movies nominated for an Oscar did (I forget the name of it), prevail on students at a university to do the CGI work as a project for their class. It was a win-win for all-the students got 'real life experience' that they can put on a CV, the professor got a project that streched his students capabilities and taught them to come up with 'real life' solutions to 'real life' problems, the school had the technology already on hand and the movie makers got alot of really high quality CGI work done very cheaply.
Adelie, sorry, I'm sure I'll say, "duh", when you tell me, but what's CGI?
Working on the locations for S5, I just discovered that the church used for the funeral was not the same church used for the interior filming.
This intrigues me. Why would they haul such a large cast down to the far reaches of Cornwall just to film the exterior shots of that church? There are so many closer ones they could have used. Martin, Louisa, AR, Bert, Al, Joe, funeral director & his son are all there. Not to mention AR's car, Bert's van, Joe's police jeep and probably Martin's Lexus. All that way just for those exterior shots?
Now to try to find the church for the interiors. They have pretty distinctive windows, so I am hopeful..............
Isn't that strange? I wish I knew the logic. But I guess it could be simply that they liked the appearance and setting of the exterior, right there on the sea, old and quaint looking, etc., but when they checked out the interior of that church, they realized it just wouldn't work for some reason. Too small and cramped, too dingy looking, too, uh something? Or even not (insert something again) enough? Maybe the interior had actually been updated too much and didn't have the quaint old feel they wanted. I actually once went to a wedding at an extremely old historic chapel attached to one of the oldest churches in the area. I was so looking forward to seeing the interior of this old stone chapel. Got in there and was shocked! At some point apparently during the fifties or sixties some genius:rolleyes: had "updated" the interior so that it had a weird sort of moderistic but now dated look. I couldn't believe it!
Adelie, I'm sorry to say I'm sure that is not feasible.
I don't think cc.cookie is off the mark. I think she is right on the mark.
Local clinic/hospitals--one is already set up with the hospital in Truro, only 45 minutes away and serving all the tiny little villages around in the moor area. I cannot imagine that another clinic in PW would make any kind of budgetary sense to the NHS. At all.
They could use a few more ambulances serving the area, though!
Ambulances won't help. The problem is at the hospital level. Anyone who knows what is happening in the UK with the NHS knows this. Here is an article explaing the situation-Hospitals 'full to bursting' as bed shortage hits danger level. You can do a search on this subject and you will find plenty of articles that echo its sentiments.
In this chart 16.4% of admissions were for short stay emergency, day cases and conditions that should have been treated elsewhere. Cases that could be triaged out to the type of clinic I premised.
What you and cc.cookie premise is to keep on shoving more patients at already filled to bursting hospitals. What I premised is to establish clinics in outlying areas where people could go to get their sniffles and sore throats taken care of along with other minor proceedures that are not emergencies and do not require overnight hospitalization. Someone like Louisa's mum in this instance would not have had to go to hospital-the only reason why she was sent was that, despite the fact that the surgeon was more than capable of doing it and did it well, her hernia surgery was preformed 'rough' in a place without proper facilites such as a sterile operating theatre. That kind of surgery (a simple heria fix without any complications to it and patient has no other health problems) would be done at an satellite outpatient clinic of one of the major hospitals where I live.
Location, convenience and quality of care would make people rely on the local clinic as their first choice for care instead of automatically running off to the hospital-I know that it has changed the mentality of "OMG, we have to go to the hospital to get that [insert name of minor problem here] treated" where I live. Now almost everyone goes to the clinics first and either the problem gets fixed there or they get referred onto the hospital if it is something that needs to be done there. This would go a long way to take the load off the hospitals plus save money for the NHS in the long run because the overall cost of care would drop-there is alot less overhead costs at a clinic than at a hospital. The costs your scheme would engender by buying more ambulances, staffing them and paying for their operation (seen the price of gas lately?) could be better used elsewhere.
Working on the locations for S5, I just discovered that the church used for the funeral was not the same church used for the interior filming.
This intrigues me. Why would they haul such a large cast down to the far reaches of Cornwall just to film the exterior shots of that church? There are so many closer ones they could have used. Martin, Louisa, AR, Bert, Al, Joe, funeral director & his son are all there. Not to mention AR's car, Bert's van, Joe's police jeep and probably Martin's Lexus. All that way just for those exterior shots?
Now to try to find the church for the interiors. They have pretty distinctive windows, so I am hopeful..............
In a situation like that (shooting exterior shots) they don't send a large crew. They send a photog, maybe a sound guy (if needed) and an associate producer or some other kind of flunky. They shoot this stuff on disk/other computer storage media. The days of film are gone except for Hollywood and the age of video tape as an industry standard is at the same age as the Dinosaurs were about a day before the asteroid hit the Gulf of Mexico.
The place where I work quit using videotape as a broadcast standard as of 1/1/13. We are tapeless and all computer run with 100 petabytes of server storage and 10 XDCAM disk recorder/players now.
In a situation like that (shooting exterior shots) they don't send a large crew. They send a photog, maybe a sound guy (if needed) and an associate producer or some other kind of flunky. They shoot this stuff on disk/other computer storage media. The days of film are gone except for Hollywood and the age of video tape as an industry standard is at the same age as the Dinosaurs were about a day before the asteroid hit the Gulf of Mexico.
The place where I work quit using videotape as a broadcast standard as of 1/1/13. We are tapeless and all computer run with 100 petabytes of server storage and 10 XDCAM disk recorder/players now.
I think that Martin Clunes was bragging on his Desert Isles disk interview that he was very proud of the cinematic qualities of Doc Martin because they were one of the last productions in the business to use film. I think you can tell the difference between the quality of the last episode of S2 and the "On the Edge" which was the Christmas episode. Maybe someone else remembers this better.
Comments
Yes, I think that is a good plan. However, instead of eye candy, I have had my eye on Miranda Hart in that role. Wouldn't you love to see her striding up the street with DM?:D
But I think she is fully booked.
The one 'good' thing about Doc Martin is that the show is shot every other year and when it is being shot it is for a couple months only and after most other programs have wrapped up their shooting schedules. If an actor is on a tight schedule they can save all the scenes they need to be in to be shot during the time they are available. They do not shoot the scenes sequentially (as we see them in an episode) for every episode, that would not be cost effective. They have all the episodes written by the time they go on location and schedule shooting to be the most efficient usage of time and resources.
NewPark - I think you and I are on the same wave length. Off and on I have thought that Miranda Hart could appear in an episode as a half sister of DM in a comedic role. She could be a daughter of Christopher Ellingham and a "lady friend" who had Miranda, unbeknownst to the doc! Now, wouldn't that complete the Ellingham family!
You missed the point entirely, reread the original post.
To use the example you express then why would all those major hospitals at Texas Medical Center build any satellite facilities and why would anyone want to 'slum' it by going to them when the largest and finest medical facility in the world is only (at maximum) a 45 minute drive away? Or why would anyone where NewPark lives go to the University of Michigan's satellite facilities when they can just drive to the main hospital itself?
Take a look at the map and see what is to the north and north east of Port Wenn (Port Issac)-it is mostly farms and small towns that are even further from Truro then PW/PI. That would be the area that would be served by a facility as premised in my OP. In fact, using your logic, Doc Martin should not even be in Port Wenn-a town that small is a waste of a valuable GP and resources. He should be in Padstow, Wadebridge, Bodmin or Truro itself.
BTW-Have you ever driven the back roads in the UK? I have in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset when we did a road trip London to Bristol then down the Cornish coast to Penzance and back to London, mostly on the B roads because we wanted to take the 'scenic route'. There a 'half hour drive' can be 8 miles depending on road conditions, sheep on the road and weather.
PPS-Port Issac has 721 residents, the residents of Port Wenn have been stated in the series as being 996 IIRC.
Actually Truro is 32 miles and 54 minutes from Port Isaac according to Google Maps. Having driven around Port Isaac (and Truro) I think 54 minutes between the two is optimistic. A rather long commute.
But then, Port Wenn is not Port Isaac, is it? So, the "real" Port Wenn is probably located somewhere near St. Agnes on the North Cornwall coast, about 10 miles and 21 minutes from Truro. An easy commute for Mr. Ellingham (as surgeons are called in England).
.
Series 4 Episode 4
Driving Mr McLynn
Writer: Richard Stoneman
Producer: Minkie Spiro
Dr. Martin Ellingham is called to Louisa's new home after she has a dizzy spell while shifting furniture. Martin urges her to slow down, but is shocked to learn that Louisa has applied to be her school's headteacher again, with the previous one getting porphyria and having to leave. Martin refuses an application to an elderly couple for a disabled parking badge when the wheelchair bound man refuses to prove he is indeed disabled, thus when Martin tries to gain proof anyway, he ends up stabbing the man in his hand with a needle.
Love the beginning of this episode.
Not sure, but if you look at your profile, there is likely a check box that sets that.
Adelie, I'm sorry to say I'm sure that is not feasible.
I don't think cc.cookie is off the mark. I think she is right on the mark.
Local clinic/hospitals--one is already set up with the hospital in Truro, only 45 minutes away and serving all the tiny little villages around in the moor area. I cannot imagine that another clinic in PW would make any kind of budgetary sense to the NHS. At all.
They could use a few more ambulances serving the area, though!
This intrigues me. Why would they haul such a large cast down to the far reaches of Cornwall just to film the exterior shots of that church? There are so many closer ones they could have used. Martin, Louisa, AR, Bert, Al, Joe, funeral director & his son are all there. Not to mention AR's car, Bert's van, Joe's police jeep and probably Martin's Lexus. All that way just for those exterior shots?
Now to try to find the church for the interiors. They have pretty distinctive windows, so I am hopeful..............
Thank you so very much for arranging all of this. Lots of work, I know! Great fun and extra informative.
Thanks!
I love that one too, but it's in a close race with the gray suit with red tie. Woof!
Adelie, sorry, I'm sure I'll say, "duh", when you tell me, but what's CGI?
Isn't that strange? I wish I knew the logic. But I guess it could be simply that they liked the appearance and setting of the exterior, right there on the sea, old and quaint looking, etc., but when they checked out the interior of that church, they realized it just wouldn't work for some reason. Too small and cramped, too dingy looking, too, uh something? Or even not (insert something again) enough? Maybe the interior had actually been updated too much and didn't have the quaint old feel they wanted. I actually once went to a wedding at an extremely old historic chapel attached to one of the oldest churches in the area. I was so looking forward to seeing the interior of this old stone chapel. Got in there and was shocked! At some point apparently during the fifties or sixties some genius:rolleyes: had "updated" the interior so that it had a weird sort of moderistic but now dated look. I couldn't believe it!
Ambulances won't help. The problem is at the hospital level. Anyone who knows what is happening in the UK with the NHS knows this. Here is an article explaing the situation-Hospitals 'full to bursting' as bed shortage hits danger level. You can do a search on this subject and you will find plenty of articles that echo its sentiments.
Here is what the Royal College of Surgeons thinks-High NHS hospital bed occupancy remains a big infection risk, says RCS
In case neither you or cc.cookie are aware of some of the 'fun' going on at NHS hospitals here is an example-NHS targets 'may have led to 1,200 deaths' in Mid-Staffordshire
In this chart 16.4% of admissions were for short stay emergency, day cases and conditions that should have been treated elsewhere. Cases that could be triaged out to the type of clinic I premised.
What you and cc.cookie premise is to keep on shoving more patients at already filled to bursting hospitals. What I premised is to establish clinics in outlying areas where people could go to get their sniffles and sore throats taken care of along with other minor proceedures that are not emergencies and do not require overnight hospitalization. Someone like Louisa's mum in this instance would not have had to go to hospital-the only reason why she was sent was that, despite the fact that the surgeon was more than capable of doing it and did it well, her hernia surgery was preformed 'rough' in a place without proper facilites such as a sterile operating theatre. That kind of surgery (a simple heria fix without any complications to it and patient has no other health problems) would be done at an satellite outpatient clinic of one of the major hospitals where I live.
Location, convenience and quality of care would make people rely on the local clinic as their first choice for care instead of automatically running off to the hospital-I know that it has changed the mentality of "OMG, we have to go to the hospital to get that [insert name of minor problem here] treated" where I live. Now almost everyone goes to the clinics first and either the problem gets fixed there or they get referred onto the hospital if it is something that needs to be done there. This would go a long way to take the load off the hospitals plus save money for the NHS in the long run because the overall cost of care would drop-there is alot less overhead costs at a clinic than at a hospital. The costs your scheme would engender by buying more ambulances, staffing them and paying for their operation (seen the price of gas lately?) could be better used elsewhere.
No I won't! I deal with it everyday so am used to using acronyms for this kind of stuff.
Computer-generated imagery
In a situation like that (shooting exterior shots) they don't send a large crew. They send a photog, maybe a sound guy (if needed) and an associate producer or some other kind of flunky. They shoot this stuff on disk/other computer storage media. The days of film are gone except for Hollywood and the age of video tape as an industry standard is at the same age as the Dinosaurs were about a day before the asteroid hit the Gulf of Mexico.
The place where I work quit using videotape as a broadcast standard as of 1/1/13. We are tapeless and all computer run with 100 petabytes of server storage and 10 XDCAM disk recorder/players now.
I think that Martin Clunes was bragging on his Desert Isles disk interview that he was very proud of the cinematic qualities of Doc Martin because they were one of the last productions in the business to use film. I think you can tell the difference between the quality of the last episode of S2 and the "On the Edge" which was the Christmas episode. Maybe someone else remembers this better.