I’ve had this on my shelves since shortly after its publication about five years ago. In that time I’ve heard countless other bloggers and BookTubers chat about and review it (always in a very positive light), I’ve seen at least two other editions come out and I’ve seen it made in to a TV series, which I then made the cardinal sin of starting to watch before reading the book. It was so good, I immediately went on a lengthy search for my copy of the novel, eventually locating it at the bottom of a stack of books wedged into the corner of an overhang at the top of my stairs.
This turned out to be even better than I expected. I expected the tales of how terrifyingly understaffed and underfunded the NHS is. I expected the stories of grueling hours, extreme exhaustion, lack of breaks and 12 hour shifts with no time for food. What I didn’t expect was that Kay could somehow make all of this so damn funny.
This is exactly my type of humour. Dark as pitch, deeply inappropriate, often gross, definitely distasteful… and about some of the most serious topics imaginable. As a chronically ill person, humour has become very much a coping mechanism. So dark humour in hospitals is kind of my thing. This fit in perfectly. But it is also an important wake-up call to those in charge of managing the NHS system (and the government who is responsible for allocating funding) because it’s in trouble. I feel like health systems in many parts of the world (ours here in Canada isn’t faring much better) are struggling and not getting the resources needed to perform some of the most basic and important jobs in our societies. And this was the case – as this book shows – long before a global pandemic ravaged this already over-burdened system, burnt out doctors who had been barely holding it together before, showed how little value is put on their work (and lives) and how easy it is to tip into a nightmare scenario of having to prioritize who gets care because there aren’t enough resources or trained personnel to care for everyone. I really hope that, post-pandemic, governments around the world sit down and take a long, hard look at the health care systems and what they need to become properly functional (and for its staff to be better cared for). But I digress. Back to the book.
Kay’s experiences span his training to become a doctor. He starts out as a junior doctor and works his way up over the course of the book. He has to move between different postings at different hospitals, but at each the hours are long, the training is scattershot, the supervisors don’t have time to properly supervise and his personal life dwindles as he is forced to cancel social engagements again and again. But in the midst of all this he still maintains a sense of purpose, and takes pride in helping his patients as best he can – sometimes by stepping in in an emergency to deliver a baby in trouble, sometimes just by listening. He meets patients who make a deep impression on him, on whom he hopes to have made a lasting positive impact. He goes from being tossed in at the deep end to swimming while competently dodging sharks, for the most part.
Ultimately Kay decided not to stick with being a doctor. This book shows how hard he worked, but it also shows why. Especially now, I think this is a really important book to read. It’s entertaining, sure, (if you have a dark sense of humour), but it also has an underlying message about the demands heaped on doctors and nurses, and how little their hard work is often seen and valued. I felt like it was a particularly important book to read now, because while for many the pandemic feels like it’s drawing to a close, it has left havoc in its wake. It’s going to take a long time for the medical systems of the world – and its medical staff, in particular – to deal with everything that has happened and attain equilibrium again. We can all play a role in helping that happen – either by advocating for better benefits and work conditions for medical personnel, making donations to hospital foundations, or just remembering how hard these people have worked to save our lives next time we’re stuck in a busy waiting room at a doctor’s office or in a hospital A&E. Be patient. Be kind. Say thank you. And, most of all, remember the people whose hard work and sacrifices have saved so many lives. Definitely a book worth reading.
Welcome to the life of a junior doctor: 97-hour weeks, life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids, and the hospital parking meter earns more than you.
Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know – and more than a few things you didn’t – about life on and off the hospital ward. – Goodreads
Book Title: This Is Going to Hurt
Author: Adam Kay
Series: No
Edition: Paperback/Ebook
Published By: Picador
Released: September 7, 2017
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir, NHS, Medicine
Pages: 285
Date Read: March 15-April 20, 2022
Rating: 9/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.41/5 (214,453 ratings)