
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is Going to Hurt is a great insight into the failings of the NHS and into the life of a Junior Doctor working in a career with completely unique pressures, stresses and scenarios unlike any other industry. As Kay quite rightly states, Doctors aren't really seen as human, more like some kind of infallible supreme being entrusted with our health by some higher authority. Which is why so many of us are so keen to complain when things go wrong.
But actually, Kay's witty, shocking and deeply personal journal entries from his life working as a junior doctor progressing into a specialism in obstetrics and gynaecology, humanises the entire profession and how it's completely unrelenting on those who take up the mantle.
Each segment of journal entries is preceded by a short essay about particular milestones throughout the career. Sometimes the requests of patients, the situations they find themselves in and the unusual objects ending up even more unusual orifices are so utterly bizarre you can't help but laugh out loud. I sometimes get the feeling if you didn't laugh you may actually cry at some of these stories and how strange humanity can be.
It's also a great insight into many medical procedures and processes, diseases and conditions, implements and machines used to define, tackle and treat a variety of symptoms and scenarios and how even the most well informed doctor will run into stumbling blocks that completely baffle, surprise and sometimes even deflate and depress them.
I absolutely could not put this book down, it's a brilliant collection of honest and funny stories from deep behind the lines of the NHS, but is also moving, sad, stressful, humbling and so much more. Adam Kay is an excellent writer and the sheer brutal nature of working in a medical profession has seen him take a dramatic career change to writer full time. But, the NHS' loss is definitely our game. Kay is a superb writer and this is one not to be missed.
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