AustLit

'In the final episode of Departure Lounge, Happy announces that Andrew will have to contribute a large amount towards the settlement of the Jye Foster case, as he put MDA in a difficult negotiating position.

'While Carr and other senior staff at the hospital appear to have accepted Andrew's actions with some tolerance, he knows that if he openly challenges Carr it will put him off side. Lucy is anxious that he doesn't do anything more to jeopardise his career but Andrew fears for the fate of any infants who come under Carr's knife.

Andrew turns to Jamie for advice on how to attack Carr. In Jamie's view, the only course of action is to take his complaint to the Medical Board, in which case his actions will be out in the open. Jamie believes this course of action will be career suicide.

'Andrew is on the verge of backing off when another baby needing heart surgery comes to Norwood Hospital and Carr is assigned to operate. Andrew now feels compelled to pursue his complaint.

'Furious, Carr turns to MDA for representation and is reassured by Happy that despite Andrew's previous association with MDA, they will give Carr a robust defence.

'At MDA, Jamie comes across evidence that is damning of Carr. Carr's mortality rates are much worse that the national average and if this information is revealed to the Medical Board it will sink Carr. MDA is in a difficult situation. It seems clear to them that Carr is not competent, but as he is their member they can't present damaging evidence.

'At the pre-hearing before the medical tribunal, Andrew puts his case. But the evidence of his key witness, Ted Walsh, is dismissed. Ted's not mentally fit due to his brain tumour. However, the chair of the tribunal asks for comparative stats, and Carr is shattered when he sees that his results are so much worse than the other surgeons in his field. He's convinced to resign. Andrew is vindicated and returns to work, but despite his success he's a pariah. No-one likes a whistleblower.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 12/6/2013)

'Enter the world of Medical Defence Australia, a medico-legal organisation that exists to defend doctors and where necessary compensate patients. All cases at MDA combine elements of law and medicine so each case is managed by a doctor and a lawyer who agree on how to proceed. It's a unique organisation that delves into morally complex and emotion filled relationships between doctors and patients.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive (http://www.australiantelevision.net/mda/mda.html). (Sighted: 22/2/2013)

One of Australia's highest rating dramas, All Saints is a Logie Award-winning Australian medical drama set in the fictional All Saints Western General Hospital in suburban Sydney. The stories originally focused on the nursing staff of Ward 17 run by Nursing Unit Manager Terri Sullivan. It was sometimes referred to as the 'garbage ward' because it took the overflow of patients.

In 2004 Network Seven producers overhauled the series in an effort to increase the show's gradually dwindling audience. They achieved this by closing down Ward 17 and transferring some of the staff to the Emergency Department managed by Frank Campion. Several other new lead characters were also introduced. The changes also saw the storylines begin to focus more on the lives of the doctors and nurses.

Another significant change to the series came in early 2009 when the producers introduced the Medical Response Unit. Central to this development was the helicopter which took doctors to rescue situations outside the hopsital and which in turn brought patients to the All Saints Emergency Department. The show's name was also changed at this time to All Saints: Medical Response Unit. The increased production costs created by having scenes shot on location played a part, however, in the series being cancelled mid-year. The series ended with the Emergency Department and Medical Response Unit teams having a dinner to farewell the last remaining original character, Von Ryan on her final day at All Saints.

All Saints was popular in many countries including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and Iran.

A character-based television drama series about the lives of police officers in the fictitious Australian country town of Mt Thomas, this series began with the arrival of Constable Maggie Doyle (Lisa McCune) to the Mt Thomas station in the episode 'A Woman's Place'. Doyle and avuncular station boss Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon (John Wood) were the core characters of the series until the departure of Lisa McCune.

Immensely popular for a decade, Blue Heelers was cancelled in 2006 after thirteen seasons. The announcement was front-page news in Australia's major newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney's Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Age in Melbourne, and Brisbane's Courier Mail.

On June 8, 2006 Ross Warneke wrote in The Age:

'It's over and, to be perfectly blunt, there's no use lamenting the demise of Blue Heelers any more. When the final movie-length episode aired on Channel Seven on Sunday night, 1.5 million Australians tuned in, a figure that was big enough to give the show a win in its timeslot but nowhere near big enough to pay the sort of tribute that this writer believes Heelers deserved after more than 500 episodes.It is unlikely there will be anything like it again. At almost $500,000 an hour, shows such as Blue Heelers are quickly becoming the dinosaurs of Australian TV.'

Play with music.

A satiric pantomime-style piece of music theatre, based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which 'the rottenness in the state of Denmark turns out to be a rampant permissiveness which has led to a complete breakdown in sexual identity. Hamlet has fallen for his best friend Horatio. In the grips of this unnatural passion he has gone to Wittenburg where Dr Yorik has carried out a successful sex-change operation' (Brian Hoad 1971, p37).

The authors suggest that community singing from the audience is to be encouraged whenever possible.