Details of the Casualty Christmas special have revealed the staff at Holby City Hospital will be facing a blood shortage crisis in tense scenes.

The festive special of the long-running BBCmedical drama is due to air on Saturday night, ahead of Christmas, which this year lands on Wednesday. And the the full fifty minute special, which has the title Casualty: All I Want for Christmas, will explore the consequences of a blood shortage as one young patient is found to need a transfusion.
The tense episode begins with a nurse noting that supply levels are low – only for an eight-car pile-up to put pressure on the hospital as accident victims are rushed to the emergency rooms. Among those in need is a six-year-old girl who is in need of a blood transfusion on Christmas Day.

The episode also touches on recent political events by exploring a storyline that reflects the recent Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Summary which saw the government vow to provide compensation to patients who contracted blood diseases due to transfusions in the 1980s. In the Casualty sub-plot, one of the car crash victims refuses blood at the risk of his life due to the death of his sister, who had unknowingly been given infected blood in the 1980s during childbirth.

The episode features testimonies from real-life contributors who have faced problems as a result of blood donation issues in the UK, including a man who had haemophilia and was a victim of the infected blood scandal. He said he was infected with HIV and hepatitis C by the time he was five

Meanwhile, further scenes involve the fictitious story of a postman who becomes a victim of the car crash while out delivering packages on Christmas Day. During the episode, nurse Cameron Micklethwaite played by Barney Walsh – son of The Chase presenter Bradley Walsh – declares the hospital is “out of blood”..