Connie Beauchamp

Constance "Connie" Beauchamp (née Chase)  MBBS, FRCS, FETCS,  is a Consultant and the current Clinical Lead at Holby City Emergency Department. She arrived at the ED as Deputy Clinical Lead in March 2014 and assumed the role of Clinical Lead after Zoe Hanna stepped down in June 2014.

Upon her arrival in the ED, she was disliked by many of the staff, especailly the nursing staff. This was due to the fact she gave many of the undesirable jobs to the nurses to do, which caused tension to arise between Connie and Rita Freeman. The tension between them grew, with Rita confonting her regarding the way her staff were being treated and how rude Connie had been to her. Connie was firm in her beliefs, and this just made things worse between them.

Connie was raised in Peckham, South London where her mother was a nurse and her father a teacher. She has one daughter with Sam Strachan, Grace, who was born in 2007. When her daughter left to live with Sam in New York in 2015, Connie was extremely upset. Shortly after, an inspection goes badly at the ED, and she blames Rita Freeman for the things that went wrong.

Time at Holby City Hospital (2004-2010)
Connie Beauchamp arrived at Holby City Hospital on 1 June 2004, and remained at the ED until she left, departing on 28 December 2010. Connie's job at Holby City Hospital was that of consultant cardiothoracic surgeon on Holby City Hospital's Darwin Ward. She later became Clinical Lead in 2006, and held the position until her departure in 2010. During her time in the ED, her husband arrived only for them to split up, she then fell pregnant with another man soon after they divorced.

In December 2010, her father is rushed to Holby in need of an operation, and she then learns that he is suffering from Alzheimer's. During the operation her father nearly dies, which leads to Connie deciding that she can no longer work there and hands in her resignation.

Time in the Emergency Department (2014-)
Connie Started at the ED on 29 March 2014 as Deputy Clinical Lead. She started her first shift when she initially arrived, without even consulting the Clinical Lead at the time, Zoe Hanna. She came across to the other staff as being rude and bossy, to which they took a dislike to her. After a while in the ED, the staff started to like her more as she started to show her true colours.

When she took over the role of Clinical Lead after Zoe Hanna stepped down, she started to enforce new rules and regulations that the staff must abide by. Some of these things were unpleasant, especially for the nursing staff and the porters. After she started to demand too much of the doctors by making them work longer shifts, Lily hit someone with her motorcycle while driving as she couldn't concentrate due to a lack of sleep. After this incident, Connie decided to cut the staff some slack after Charlie and Rita both spoke to her separately.



In May 2015, just after returning to the ED from the police station with Charlie, he gets a phonecall from his son Louis' girlfriend Sofia in Romania, telling him that his son has been attacked by drug dealers and needs urgent medical attention. He says to Connie that he needs to catch a flight there. Connie then offers to join him as they leave the ED for the airport.

Relationships
Because of her authority and managerial approach to running the ED, she is disliked by many of the staff, although gets along very well with a few such as Charlie Fairhead.

Zoe Hanna
Connie had a favourable relationship with Zoe in comparison to other staff, partially due to the fact that she was Clinical Lead upon Connie's arrival, not because she thought any higher of her. After Zoe disobeys instructions to stay in the ED in June 2014 and goes to the site of an accident, she resigns as Clinical Lead as she feels saving lives is more important than the responsibility. After Zoe announces this, Guy Self asks Connie if she would like to be Clinical Lead, to which she says she does.

Shortly after, Connie becomes Clinical Lead. Zoe still maintains a favourable relationship with Connie, although wasn't happy about how some of the staff were being treated by her.

Alfred Maxwell
At the end of February 2015, Alfred Maxwell was admitted to the ED, a patient suffering from motor neurone disease. She bonded with him and they became friends, with Connie frequently visiting him in the care home he lived in.

Despite their friendship, Connie felt uncomfortable at times due to the fact that Alfred would ask her for help to die, as he didn't want to carry on living in the condition he was in. Connie talked with Charlie about what she should do, although Charlie could only offer his advice and past experience when he did a similar thing for an old friend. Connie then took two boxes of benzodiazepines from a locked medical cabinet and brings them with her when she visits Alfred. The next morning, Alfred is admitted to the ED and dies peacefully, as Connie prevents the staff members from attempted resuscitation due to the fact Alfred has a DNR.

Rita Freeman
Connie and Rita do not get along. This is mainly due to the conflict that arose when Connie treated the nurses badly and Rita felt it was her reponsibility to step in due to the unfair treatment.

Charlie Fairhead
Charlie was friendly to Connie from day one even when he felt she was being unreasonable he managed to speak to her in a calm way. They became friends in 2015 after Connie revealed to Charlie that the reason that she is so controlling in the ED is because her father died in a crowded ED and she doesn't want Holby ED to let that happen to anyone again.

She later speaks to him frequently about Alfred Maxwell's frequent requests to Connie to help him to die.

Legal troubles
After Alfred's death in April 2015, Rita becomes suspicious because Connie was so reluctant to treat Alfred and that they couldn't find his notes. She demands a toxicology report on Alfred's body, and the results come back that he has had an overdose of benzodiazepines, and she checks and sees that two boxes are missing from the cabinet from where they were meant to be stored. Immediatly thinking that she has assisted in Alfred's death, Rita calls the police on her. Earlier that day, Rita saw Connie slip something into her desk drawer.

Connie is repremanded in police custody and questioned by the police. She tells the police after a long questioning session that if they check the top draw of her desk, they will find two boxes of benzodiazepines, with two pills missing from one box, which she informs them is a non lethal dose. Two police officers are then sent to Holby ED to check Connie's drawer to check for the pills. However, upon their arrival Rita overhears what they wish to do and runs to Connie's office to check the drawer. To her shock, she find the boxes with two pills missing from one of the boxes, therefore revealing that Connie didn't give the pills to Alfred. She panics, and takes the boxes from Connie's drawer along with some files to hide them. The police then enter the office with Charlie, at which point Charlie questions why Rita is in the office and she tells him she needed to collect some paperwork. The police check the drawer and the boxes are not there, which leads to Connie being locked away without bail on charge of Alfred's death.

The following week, Charlie begins to suspect Rita of having something to do with all of it. She hides the pills she took inside her locker. Charlie then finds Rita's locker key and gives it to her, and tells her that he could have looked inside but decided not to as it's Rita's choice as to what she does. He asks her if she could live with the guilt of ruining someone's life and career, to which she goes quiet. Later that day, Rita visits Charlie in his office and gives him the two boxes of benzodiazepines, saying that she panicked when the police entered Connie's office and took them. She explains how she never meant for it to happen, and Charlie tells her he will have to hand in the evidence to the police. He then asks Rita why he should protect her and not tell the police that she took the pills, to which she replies that she loves her job.

Charlie then takes the boxes of benzodiazepines to the police, and tells them that they turned up. The barcodes match the ones that went missing, and Connie is therefore set free. Upon arriving back at the ED with Connie after picking her up from the police station, Charlie receives the phonecall telling him that his son has been injured. Just as they are getting in the car, Rita exits the ED after her shift and looks over at Connie with a vacant expression. Connie looks back over at Rita with a cold stare before getting into Charlie's car.

Personal life
Connie was married to Michael Beauchamp, but they are now divorced. After a breif relationship with Sam Strachan in 2006, she gave birth to their daughter, Grace, in 2007. Connie was aprehensive to let Sam have anything to do with the birth, but later becomes more accepting. Grace took Connie's married surname of Beauchamp from her previous marriage to Michael Beauchamp.

Her mother died in 1995, and after that she was estranged from her father for a period of 12 years and reuinite when Connie reveals that she has given birth to his granddaughter.

Trivia

 * Connie used to be the Clinical Lead for Cardiothoracic Surgery at Holby City Hospital.
 * She began working at the ED in March 2014.
 * Connie joined Holby City Hospital as a surgeon on 1 June 2004.
 * Connie left Holby City Hospital on 28 December 2010.

Behind the scenes
Amanda Mealing portrays Connie in Casualty from March 2014 and previously portrayed her in Holby City from 2004 to 2010. She at first returned to a regular role in Casualty but as time passed, she became more prominent.

Connie has been subject to many criticisms, mainly since she arrived in Causalty due to the fact she is unrepresentative of what the NHS is really like.