In This is Going to Hurt, Kay shares a series of diary entries from his time working for the NHS in 2004 - 2010. These diary entries include brief patient stories and observations about his work as a junior doctor. Some of the entries were sombre, some funny, some interesting, some educational and all were entertaining in their own way.
I enjoyed the fact this audiobook can be listened to in short or longer chunks of time; whichever suits the listener/reader. It was easy to stop between diary entries for the day and a relief not having to wait for the end of a chapter to do so.
Living in Australia, I don't have any direct experience with the NHS but Kay paints a frustrating picture of the demands on junior doctors and the bureaucracy of the system at large. He also evokes enormous admiration for the medical community in a time when respect for doctors, nurses and medical staff couldn't be greater. They're both on the front line and the last line of defence in this Coronavirus pandemic and we depend on them for our very lives.
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay was enjoyable and funny with an underlying message about the state of the NHS that is especially relevant today.
Carpe Librum!
Nice review. I enjoyed this too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Shelleyrae, glad to hear you enjoyed this one too.
DeleteSounds like a good read, I really enjoyed Sonia Henry's "Going Under".
ReplyDeleteThanks, it was a good read. I've seen Sonia Henry's 'Going Under' around the traps but I think the cover design is intentionally provocative and a little gratuitous so I haven't picked it up. Also the blurb claims it's "Darkly funny and sexy" and I'm just not interested in how she's going to make medical training 'sexy'. What were your thoughts? Am I misjudging the book?
Delete