Review: This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay

This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Where to begin with this brilliant book. Harrowing and Funny in equal measures, you will find yourself laughing and crying in the same chapter. It's full of black humour, but humour that is necessary to get your through it. I've read it for my bookclub and most of the times when they pick these 'award winning' books, the books are far from worthy of the awards, but this is worthy of being celebrated on all levels.

It gives an insiders view on what it is really going on in the NHS and what doctors and nurses are put through in jobs that are slowly been eroded by decades of a Tory Government. And now, just four years on since publication, more than ever the awareness of how little respect the staff get and how badly they are being treated by the government is needed. This also highlights why private healthcare won't cut it, and the true horrors that lie waiting for the public if they continue to let the government sell it off and don't take a proper collective stand.

Adam Kay worked in Obstetrics and Gynae, and rose through the levels, juggling emergency after emergency on a non-stop carrousel for his entire time working as an NHS doctor, rarely eating or sleeping. The event that brought it to a crashing halt for him was heartbreaking and left me in tears. As a woman this is a brutal view of our reality as childbearers and will give many men an insider view.

It's no holds barred, British humour at its best, but won't be for everyone, not just the language but the brutal events that can give you nightmares - trust me, don't read it before you go to sleep, it'll definitely give you insominia as you try and get your mind round how the hell the situation of such overworked and underpaid staff is allowed to continue.

But it is also a must-read if you want to have a true insight to what is really happening. I would recommend it as necessary reading for everyone living in the UK and benefitting from the NHS - but especially the government ministers. They need to read it more than ANYONE!

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