| Lily Chao | |
|---|---|
| Casualty character | |
 Crystal Yu as Lily Chao | |
| First appearance | "Bedside Manners" 3 August 2013 |
| Last appearance | "Episode 11" 4 November 2017 |
| Portrayed by | Crystal Yu |
| In-universe information | |
| Occupation |
|
| Family | Feng Chao (father) Li Na Chao (mother) |
| Relatives | Harry Zhang (cousin) Ling (aunt) |
Lily Chao is a fictional character from the BBC medical drama Casualty, played by actress Crystal Yu. She first appeared in the series twenty-eight episode "Bedside Manners", broadcast on 3 August 2013. Lily arrives at Holby City hospital to resume her second year of the Foundation Programme. Yu had previously appeared in the show as a separate guest character. She also decided to learn certain medical procedures to make her character believable. Lily is characterised as an ambitious junior doctor and intelligent high-achiever. Lily is good at her job but lacks any "bedside manner" and her no-nonsense attitude causes problems with colleagues and patients alike. The character was originally working towards a career in dermatology but becomes accustomed to the variety of work the Holby City's Emergency Department has to offer.
The character's storylines have focused on themes of bullying at different points of her tenure. Lily is subjected to harsh treatment from her mentor Consultant Martin Ashford (Patrick Robinson). She takes him to a tribunal from which she emerges victorious. Two years later the show switched the roles playing Lily as the bully when she is designated to mentor to junior doctor Alicia Munroe (Chelsea Halfpenny), who resigns from the hospital to escape Lily. The show have also centered a standalone episode around the character, which played her turning into a detective roll to solve two murders and endangering her life confronting the culprit. Yu decided to leave the serial in 2017 and Lily made her final appearance in the eleventh episode of series thirty-two, broadcast on 4 November 2017. The character has been generally well received by critics favouring her sound medical skills and poor bedside manner. But Duncan Lindsay writing for newspaper Metro accused the character of being one-dimensional.