There have been a lot of changes at CBC since 2004 – programming rethinks, high-level departures, labor strife – and yet, through it all, work on the medical drama Jozi-H has quietly continued, going to camera last month in South Africa and finally landing on the net’s schedule for 2006/07.

The show has ‘stayed fundamentally the same’ since its green light, according to exec producer Alfons Adetuyi of Toronto’s Inner City Films, on the phone from Johannesburg.

‘I think we were ahead of the curve a little bit,’ he says. ‘We always strive for really strong, high-quality drama, audience-friendly drama, and that seems to be [CBC’s] new mandate, too.’

The 13 x 60 is set against the rampant bloodshed and disease of the sprawling South African city, and was inspired by an actual hospital that specializes in treating violent injuries. Doctors apparently come from all over the world to train in Johannesburg.

It is budgeted at ‘well over’ $1 million per episode – a 65/35 split led by South Africa – with funding from various South African agencies, the Canadian Television Fund and Telefilm Canada.

‘I think our helicopter sequence cost more than that,’ says Adetuyi, laughing. The first episode opens with what sounds like an intense and costly scene, with boats and helicopters trying to rescue people stranded by a flooded river, including a baby caught in a tree.

Local authorities opened a dam for the shoot, ‘which made it look pretty good.’

The scripts by head writer Alyson Feltes (Traders, The Associates) sometimes juggle as many as five storylines per episode.

‘There’s something new happening almost every act,’ says Adetuyi. ‘It’s part of the intense quality of the drama that you get in the hospital. It’s not a calm place like you’d get in Grey’s Anatomy. It’s very visceral.’

Adetuyi and his brother Amos Adetuyi exec produce with Marva Ollivierre (Skin Deep), Tony Dennis (Band of Gold) and Mfundi Vundla and Adeelah Carrim of South Africa’s Morula Pictures.

Directors from both countries include Anne Wheeler (Da Vinci’s Inquest), Kelly Makin (Queer as Folk), Thabang Moleya (Portrait of a Dark Soul) and Neal Sundstrom (Homeland). Alfons Adetuyi will also direct two eps.

Jozi-H stars Sarah Allen (Human Trafficking), Vincent Walsh (Saving Private Ryan), Billoah Greene (Head of State), Thami Ngubeni (Generations) and Neil McCarthy (Hotel Rwanda).