TV shows, whether they’re based on crime investigations, friendship groups or on the lives on those living in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, are usually based on some element of truth. But when it comes to medical dramas, many people question how true to life they really are. This question has, over the years, been put to real-life medical professions, producing some rather surprising results.

One of the longest running medical dramas in the world is ER, set in a Chicago-based hospital in America. Although for years it was considered the most realistic due to its popularity, use of medical jargon and highly emotive storylines, many real-life doctors found the programme on of the most inaccurate. Their qualms mainly lie with the unrealistic diagnoses, treatments and recovery times which they claim always come second to a dramatic story.

Similarly, House has been panned by some real-life doctors who say that no-way would a crack team ever focus on just one case at a time. But they did say, however, that it was good to see a show that reflected to complicated and almost impossible task of identifying rare diseases and illnesses, and that the medical world is, like all vast incorporations, dog-eat-dog.

But a surprising victory when it comes to realistic medical TV shows is Scrubs. When you look past the wacky and surreal sketches, medical professionals believe that Scrubs most accurately depicts the mundane cases and ordinary lives of those working in a hospital. The hierarchy and disorder of hospitals and the thoughts and insecurities of interns reflected in the programme are much more realistic than the dramatised and extreme storylines in other shows like Grey’s Anatomy, House and ER.

But all this begs the question; does any of it really matter? We all know that TV shows are dramatisations of real-life, so despite all the extreme cases, relationships and medical oversights, we still love to watch what life in hospitals might be like.

Unfortunately, clinical negligence is a very real issue. Make sure you get the information you need.