Alice Roberts: Our Hospital Through Time

Patient Maxine, who comes into St Bartholomew's Hospital with a diseased heart valve, inspires Alice to investigate the world of body snatchers and how when the supply failed to meet demand, people took matters into their own hands to provide medical schools with cadavers. She also looks into the history of anaesthetic with historian Lesley Smith and hears about St Bartholomew's first washerwoman, Elizabeth Johnson.

Alice meets patient Matthew who has a rare form of cancer, called neuroendocrine cancer, which affects his nerve and gland cells. Barts is one of a handful of places that offers an extraordinary therapy for this rare disease, known as Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy or PRRT. As lunch gets underway, Alice investigates the history of hospital food.