Savage Cuts

Savage Cuts is a contemporary story of a health service torn between political imperatives to close a local hospital, and a group of unlikely collaborators to keep it open.

Stella Savage, has been appointed as chief executive to the Royal Infirmary with the secret task of closing the hospital, which is considered to be too old and too small for a modern health service. Her plans are discovered by consultant physician William Judd who has very different views and becomes determined to keep it open. As both parties enlist their support and begin battle, they are surprised by two unexpected developments, the malicious claims of a so-called ‘whistle-blower,’ and the rapid spread of an infectious illness within the hospital affecting patients and staff and threatening the local community.

To deal with the emergency Savage and Judd are forced to work together. The experience tests their own beliefs about themselves and the future of the hospital.

Driven by an ensemble cast, the story is an illuminating window into a world hotly debated since the 1970s. It combines scabrous humour with brutal realism in facing the contradictions of a modern health service.