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Original poster

Drama this is going to hurt

203 replies

Thomasina79 · 12/02/2022 18:20

I found the book brilliantly funny. I have worked in admin hospitals and primary care, so can relate re cut backs etc.

Anyone else enjoying this drama, if that’s the right word! True to life. Any doctors, nurses etc anyone?

OP posts:
RedToothBrush · 13/02/2022 00:16

Apparently so.

Given he was practising at the time, it just makes him look even more unsuited to the role and a prick who didn't respect patients.

Patients who are out there somewhere, possibly reading his book or watching the tv show pondering their own experience in his care.

LovedayCL · 13/02/2022 00:18

@purpleme12

Oh my god are those his words about trisomy???
Yep.
Ohyesiam · 13/02/2022 00:22

@Boood

Do doctors really speak to each other like that? I’ve known one person in my 25 year working life who made a habit of being that sarcastic and aggressive and he was constantly dodging warnings. It’s so far outside the norm in private companies it’s bizarre to watch.
No they don’t, at least never in my hearing in a 15 year NHS career. But I guess it’s like The Thick Of It, there must be plenty of backstabbing in the cabinet, but like so aggressive and out there.
Squishmael · 13/02/2022 00:27

Ugh no, just no. It's an awful mockery and denigration of women.

Lovesabadboy · 13/02/2022 00:37

Agreed. I’m no prude and definitely have a dark sense of humour, but hated the book. He came across as misogynistic and totally lacked respect for both the women in his care and the midwifery and nursing staff. Tried to paint himself as some kind of superhero, running from room to room saving lives. Reinforced negative stereotypes of labour and birth. Hated it and strongly dislike him. I won’t be watching.

@AutumnLeaves21

I agree 100%
My daughter (24, no children) found it funny and recommended it to me. I could barely finish it - such a horrible man in so many ways.
I am glad he no longer practices.

RedToothBrush · 13/02/2022 00:48

Even when he did those songs in the early 2000s, it was already deeply unprofessional to be doing so whilst still practicing.

Mainly because you don't know whether the next patient you see tomorrow is going to be one who saw you the night before who maybe fits one aspect of your poor taste song.

We aren't talking the 1970s here.

Joystir59 · 13/02/2022 01:04

Watched five minutes and thought it awful misogynistic very unfunny in a typically BBC kind of way. Won't watch any more.

malificent7 · 13/02/2022 07:48

He's a twat but the workplace in hospital can be like that. I just finished retraining in an allied health professional and as a student i was bullied, ignored, had bad behaviour from patients and that's without the junior doctor hours..

AgeingDoc · 13/02/2022 07:55

I'm not watching. I've had several attempts to read the book as so many people rave about it, but as a doctor I found it to be cliched drivel and as a woman I found it offesnsively misogynistic.

Baystard · 13/02/2022 07:59

Funnily enough I read the book and thought 'urgh - how patronising/those poor women'.

However I'm not surprised that the BBC made this, even now. I don't think misogyny bothers them.

olympicsrock · 13/02/2022 08:01

I’ve read the book but not watched it yet. Adam was at the same med school in the year below. I really related to many of the things he described . Things like when he chats to a patient in the middle of the night and realises this is the first proper conversation he has had in ages.

I remember coming across a patient of mine who had terminal cancer in her 50s at 4am when I was 25 and having a hard time. I popped my head in to see if she was ok. She ended up counselling me for an hour while I curled up at the end of her bed.

We were exhausted and emotional often isolated from friends and family . Work was relentless.

I

malificent7 · 13/02/2022 08:25

Also there os a very dark humour in hospitals...also a light humour but I speak for myself here....we abdolutely put the patient 1st and do this job for them.
There is no way in God's earth i could work in obs and gynae though....brutal.

HeadNorth · 13/02/2022 08:29

I watched the first episode last night but I won't watch another - it was horrid. How a posh bloke can make women giving birth all about poor little him.

Funnily enough I didn't mind the book when I read it, but on TV it seemed so grim, uncaring and misogynistic.

nannybeach · 13/02/2022 08:32

It's not a drama,it's a black comedy. I trained in nursing in 1972, the consultants were absolutely horrible thought they were God, even in the 70s,80, I was actually a gynae patient while working on the ward,the good looking Australian reg was lovely, the sister was a bitch.

Averydifferentwoman · 13/02/2022 08:32

I really didn’t like the book. The humour was both forced and unpleasant. It was uncomfortably close to low brow comedians who make racist jokes a bit too close to the bone - not because they are funny, particularly, but to shock.

Loopytiles · 13/02/2022 08:34

Disliked the book, found the humour unkind towards women.

Brainwave89 · 13/02/2022 09:01

Only seen a couple so far as well as reading the book. I found the book somewhat better than what I have seen. Very funny and did not come across as quite so disrespectful of the clientele. My son is a doctor and says that whilst it has changed some aspects are still common- enormous pressure, gallows humour etc are common. He is of mixed race and has had more than one family ask for a white doctor only, which in 2022 is quite shocking.

Theluggage15 · 13/02/2022 09:15

I never liked him or the sort of hero worship he seems to enjoy, he never seemed to like women at all. And now seeing those songs he performed makes me all the more sure, he really dislikes women.

TulipsTwoLips · 13/02/2022 09:23

I have never worked in the NHS but still felt the book was incredibly predictable. I could have written it myself just by drumming up a lot of cliches and stereotypes!

NinaDefoe · 13/02/2022 09:23

I’m enjoying it (only on episode 1) but the main character seems to be the only person doing anything. I don’t see any of the background staff frantically rushing around like him.

LizzieSiddal · 13/02/2022 09:27

This report does not surprise me at all! What a disgusting person he is.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10506277/This-Going-Hurt-author-Adam-Kay-sang-vile-songs-Downs-syndrome-baby.html

StScholastica · 13/02/2022 09:33

Can't abide him. Had he stayed I medicine he should be disciplined for writing and performing those songs.
I qualified in 1991 and even back then we had professional standards drummed into us.

YouSetTheTone · 13/02/2022 09:36

Grim misogynistic content. If this was aimed at any group other than women there would be an enormous outcry.
People might say ‘oh but it’s about reality’ - well that’s no better. Why is treating women (and other patients) in this fashion seen as acceptable even if you’re overworked/ tired etc? It perpetuates a perception that NHS workers are entitled to treat people any way they want ‘because the system is broken’.
And if people say ‘oh but it’s just comedy’ - then why is that any better?! Offensive behaviour towards women, oh it’s just a laugh…

Janice Turner, the Times columnist, nailed it on Twitter.

Drama this is going to hurt
LizzieSiddal · 13/02/2022 09:36

Apologies, didn’t realise someone had already posted that link.

Baystard · 13/02/2022 09:42

Yes @YouSetTheTone the bit Janice is talking about really stood out to me. It was clear that he was more concerned that this major tear would add to his workload than the impact it would have on the mother. Horrible.