In the first episode Stacey works as a healthcare assistant, changing beds and cleaning bed pans on the liver ward, as she explores how lifestyle illnesses impact the NHS. Ann works alongside nurses in the busiest department - urgent care - to explore why the health service is under such pressure. Jonnie is a theatre assistant in surgery to understand the demands on the operating teams, and Michael, who trained as a doctor in the 1980s, gets hands-on in A&E to see if it is tougher now than it was then.