The popular and award-winning Channel 4 series, 24 Hours in A&E, is making a highly anticipated comeback to its former home at St George’s Hospital in London. After spending seven years filming at St George’s and spanning over 200 episodes, the program relocated to Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) in Nottingham in 2021. The return marks an exciting new chapter for the show, which is celebrated not just for its medical dramas but also for its intimate focus on people's stories. As the series relocates back to the heart of the UK’s most populated city, London, it promises to continue telling the extraordinary stories that unfold every day within the National Health Service (NHS).

Hospital leadership and staff have expressed great delight that 24 Hours in A&E is coming home. Kate Slemeck, Managing Director for St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, conveyed her pride in bringing the program back to showcase the unwavering work of the Emergency Department colleagues and the numerous teams who support them, treating everything from minor injuries to major traumas. The fundamental goal of the series remains the same: to give the public a rare, fly-on-the-wall look at the dedicated and talented teams who treat patients, highlighting the expert care, compassion, and kindness patients receive daily.

The Return to St George’s Hospital: A Historic Home

St George’s Hospital holds a significant place in the history of the 24 Hours in A&E series. The show, which first aired in 2011 from King's College Hospital, moved to St George’s in 2014, making it the setting for a massive run of episodes before its 2021 move to Nottingham. Its return signals a renewed commitment to documenting the relentless pace of healthcare in the capital. St George’s is particularly suited for this purpose, as it is one of the eleven major trauma centers in the UK and serves as the largest healthcare provider and a major teaching hospital in its area.

To facilitate the detailed, 24-hour monitoring that the program requires, the Emergency Department at St George’s was recently equipped with extensive filming infrastructure. This setup included 136 cameras, 30,000 meters of cable, and 150 microphones, all installed to capture the daily life of one of London’s busiest EDs. The sheer scale of operations at St George’s is immense, with over 400 patients attending the Emergency Department every day, and over 152,000 people seeking treatment between April 2024 and March 2025 alone. The hospital’s Managing Director noted that a lot has changed since the series was last filmed there, including increased demand for services, making the new episodes relevant to the current challenges facing the NHS.

Showcasing Compassion and Complexity in the Emergency Department

The essence of 24 Hours in A&E lies in its portrayal of both complex medicine and deep human compassion. Clinical Director and Consultant for Emergency Medicine and Major Trauma at St George’s, Dr. Gabe Jones, expressed excitement to show viewers the brilliant Emergency Department, which continues to deliver excellent care even in the most challenging circumstances. He highlighted that the job is kept interesting by the combination of fast pace and variety—from treating the most critically ill patients to supporting those who are simply struggling to cope. The show offers a crucial opportunity to celebrate these dedicated professionals and their life-saving work.

Expert Insight: The Role of Dr. Gabe Jones

Dr. Gabe Jones himself embodies the high-stakes, specialized environment of a major trauma center. He finds the variety and fast pace of the Emergency Department deeply engaging, valuing the chance to meet new people, hear their stories, and offer help. His career includes impressive highlights that have shaped his approach to patient care, such as working as a helicopter doctor with the Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance and participating in a major expedition at Mount Everest base camp. These experiences, which involved caring for patients in highly challenging environments, directly influence how he delivers care within the hospital today. Beyond his demanding role, Dr. Jones is also a keen rock climber and mountaineer, pursuing hobbies he now shares with his family, which takes them to incredible places in the Alps, Himalayas, and Andes.

Innovation and Challenges in Modern Healthcare

The returning series is not only about reflecting current challenges, such as the increased demand for services, but also about highlighting the advancements and innovations being implemented within the NHS. St George’s is leveraging new technologies and clinical practices to improve patient outcomes. Specific innovations mentioned include using chest wall catheters for broken ribs and implementing AI-assisted clinical notes. These developments demonstrate the hospital’s efforts to drive innovation alongside providing expert care. The series provides a platform to shine a light on both the systemic challenges hospitals face and the innovative solutions they are implementing.

St George’s plays a pivotal role in the larger healthcare landscape as part of the St George’s, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals and Health Group (gesh), which serves a population of four million people with 17,000 staff. The sheer volume of patients—over 152,000 annually in the ED—underscores the need for both compassion and cutting-edge operational efficiency demonstrated by the staff who work tirelessly, often long after the cameras stop rolling.

Gratitude for Nottingham’s Contribution

While St George’s is excited for the return of 24 Hours in A&E, the transition back to London was handled with gracious acknowledgment of the Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) in Nottingham. The staff at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust were proud to have hosted the series for so long, bringing the show into the heart of their community and sharing incredible stories of their staff and patients. Manjeet Shemar, Medical Director at NUH, emphasized that the series gave the public a chance to see the complexities of working in a busy Emergency Department like QMC, calling their daily work "quite remarkable".

The production company, The Garden, and Channel 4 both expressed deep gratitude to the teams at Nottingham for allowing them the privilege of filming and documenting powerful, moving stories. The compassion and resilience shown by the QMC staff and patients left a lasting impact on the series. Dr. Gabe Jones from St George’s explicitly thanked the QMC staff for showcasing the NHS at its best, while Nottingham leadership expressed hope that the series might return to QMC again one day.

The Power of Human Stories

The enduring popularity of 24 Hours in A&E stems directly from its ability to connect with the audience through human experience. As Channel 4’s Commissioning Editor, Rita Daniels, noted, the series looks forward to continuing to tell the extraordinary stories that unfold in the NHS. The program understands that it is "as much about people’s stories as it is about the medicine". By allowing the cameras into their most vulnerable moments, patients give viewers a profound understanding of life, mortality, and recovery. The audience connects deeply with the individuals on screen, witnessing the dedicated, compassionate care provided by St George's staff. This focus on personal narrative ensures that the returning series will continue to highlight not just the medical procedures but the emotional core of healthcare in one of the capital's busiest emergency centers.

🔖 Key Takeaways

The return of 24 Hours in A&E to St George’s Hospital signals an exciting opportunity for viewers to witness the cutting edge of major trauma care combined with profound human drama.

🗝️ A Grand Homecoming: The award-winning Channel 4 series is back at St George’s, where it filmed for seven years previously, after a period in Nottingham. The London Emergency Department is one of the UK’s major trauma centers and is equipped with 136 cameras to capture its busy daily life.

🗝️ Focus on Compassion and Expertise: Staff, including Dr. Gabe Jones, Clinical Director, are committed to delivering excellent, compassionate care amidst increased service demands and challenging circumstances. Dr. Jones’s experience, including work as an air ambulance doctor and at Mount Everest base camp, influences his perspective on critical care.

🗝️ Innovation on Display: The show will shine a light on hospital challenges while also showcasing innovations being driven at St George’s, such as the use of chest wall catheters and AI-assisted clinical notes.

🗝️ Acknowledgement of QMC: The transition back involved sincere gratitude toward Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham for hosting the series and sharing the remarkable stories of their staff and community during their tenure.

🗝️ The Human Element: Ultimately, the series is defined by its ability to tell powerful, relatable stories, allowing the audience to connect with the vulnerable moments and extraordinary resilience of both patients and the dedicated NHS staff.

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24 Hours in A&E returns