Facilities hire for filming

Our Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre was hired by a well-known TV company to provide a backdrop for filming. 

Our Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre was hired by a well-known TV company to provide a backdrop for filming. 

When filming health related footage for TV and media, film crews often come up against challenges because healthcare settings such as busy hospital wards and operating theatres are being used for patient care, and so filming within hospitals is difficult. Within the University, we have a whole building dedicated to recreating the healthcare environment. We have an operating theatre, several mock wards, consultation rooms and clinical skills labs, all set up exactly as they would be within a real clinical environment. We also have digital anatomy tables, ultrasound facilities and a wide range of simulation mannequins. These facilities are used extensively within our healthcare teaching provision to ensure the future workforce are as well-prepared as possible for their future careers. Outside of teaching, the simulated environments are used for a range of other applications, such as Trusts hiring the facilities to train their staff, our own CPD programmes for healthcare professionals, film crews and photographers looking for a realistic healthcare environment, and even artists.

Whilst looking for an alternative backdrop, the TV producers contacted us about hiring these specialist facilities. They were filming a series of short news reports looking at various aspects of British life in the year ahead, encompassing the economic outlook, politics in an election year, and health, amongst other topics. One of those episodes explored what 2024 would hold for the NHS, and the plethora of challenges it’s currently facing. Our mock operating theatre and wards were used to create a realistic healthcare background for the filming, allowing the film crew time and space to get the shots they needed without having to work around clinical activities or imposing on NHS services.

“The team were very accommodating, the filming went really well, and the space was just fantastic.“

Producer