THIS IS GOING TO HURT by Adam Kay

This is great, a complete emotional roller coaster of laughter, empathy, grimacing, leg crossing, horror, disbelief, fascination, frustration, hope all bundled up in a massive dose of reality. I loved this for its grittiness, its emotional intensity, how self deprecating and therefore real it is, its warts and all approach, and the damn fine human being who has had the guts to tell us his story. Highly unlikely he will ever get any sort of job in the NHS again, but he Adam Kay, bless his heart, does not care one jot.

It is pretty clear this is a story that needed to be told. It would be easy to see only the voyeurism factor of reading about all the the various ailments and behaviours that take the average person to a hospital in the first place. Much more importantly it is Dr Adam Kay's own story - his own personal, heart-on-the-sleeve story, trying to make sense of the treadmill he found himself on  - why he became a doctor, his career path, the very stressful working conditions and expectations endlessly heaped on him, the deep affinity he felt for many of his patients, which ultimately led to his complete burn out and decision to leave the NHS. Such a human story and mostly set in perhaps the most emotionally intense place in a hospital - obstetrics and gynaecology.

You read this and you wonder how true is it really, parts of it being so unbelievable and bizarre. But it would seem it all is true as nothing shows up in a search, and he appears to have had plenty of legal advice to ensure we really are reading the truth. There may well be a little embellishment from time to time, but it seems the crux of the story is there regardless of any wee extras thrown in. My 25 year old childless daughter read this, and it may well put one off ever wanting to have a baby - her reaction was very mixed, which meant I approached it with some trepidation. As did a friend who has had 3 children so you would think immune to the obstetric stories, but no, she really did not like this book at all. It certainly is not for the prudish....!

Aside from the medical jargon and stories Kay regales us with, and the unrelenting pressure public health systems around the world are under, in this time of the covid-19 pandemic, it is a particularly timely book, helping us - the average user of the public health system - appreciate and acknowledge the amazing and often thankless work the front line doctors, nurses, assistants and anyone else involved in our care do for us when we are helpless, suffering, in pain, scared, vulnerable. These people take it all in their stride, strong and understanding and compassionate for us - wonderful people - bless them.