This Is Going to Hurt

[Wouldloveanother]

I read this book a while ago but just re-skimmed it while bedridden with pregnancy sickness. I’d forgotten how funny it is, although the ending is tragic and poignant. I thought it gave a really good insight into the pressures on maternity staff and why it’s not always realistic for us to have the exact care we want in labour. I think it’s a shame he left medicine, but can see how he lost his nerve and didn’t feel able to go back. Anyone else read it?

[AgathaMystery]

I don’t know Adam Kay but I have seen him live 4 or maybe 5 times in the past 15/16 years.

he’s NOT a regular guy. He’s absolutely talented (as is Suman Biswas) as a satirist. I’d say Biswas is objectively funnier and more talented in fact. But he’s not. ‘Regular guy’. I once watched him neck a BOTTLE of red wine when he came on stage to do a set. That was before he spoke or played anything.

he was vile that night. Utterly vile. I’d say most of the audience was colleagues from work (NHS) and we all left feeling a bit sick. The funny medic we first watched in 2005-6 Was gone for good. What was left was a broken horror.

[blubberball]

I liked the book, and I really like the books he's written for kids too. My ds loves listening to the audiobooks. I have heard that he's a bit of a knob at live shows though.

[SurferRona]

@EmmaH2022

I found it misogynistic too
my doctor found it hilarious and she interpreted a lot of things differently than I did.

then I found put he was in a straight marriage before coming out, and wondered if he was just taking out his confusion on women.

either way, you wouldn't want him as a doctor, nor would you pop to the pub with him..well, I wouldn't.

Thanks for posting this article @EmmaH2022 . Did @Wouldloveanother read this? Answers your ‘does anyone have any examples of his misogyny’ Any comments on it? No, I didn’t think so.

Hateful book, but above all just really, really, badly written. Appallingly.

[SurferRona]

oh, and @Wouldloveanother he is a prick, and do read the unheard article which explains why he’s a misogynist.

[Butterdishtea]

alwaysdarkestbeforedawn

I wonder why you'd think I did that when I didn't.

Perhaps a little more concern about respect for patients and a little less hyperdefensiveness about badly behaving doctors would make things better for patients right across the board.

There are many professions where stress is a given and decency if required. I have many medics in the family and not one would dream of stooping so low. Bottom line, here's a doctor who needs to have a course in basic human decency before he opens his mouth in public again. It's that simple.

[justagirlstandinginfrontofcake]

Adam Kay was trying to get into showbiz while still at medical school. He left Medicine because he finally got a deal that paid enough to do so.

[alwaysdarkestbeforedawn]

@Butterdishtea You said he was “tired and not sufficiently well paid”. That’s not an accurate description of what it’s like to be a junior doctor and, to me, trivialises the actual experience.

I don’t think I’ve been hyper defensive. Maybe that’s how I’ve come across. It’s not how I feel. I’ve acknowledged his humour is in bad taste and I totally understand why many people don’t like him. I think some of the comments here are based on assumption rather than what people actually know about him. And some are based on fiction from the TV series. I don’t feel I can judge him as a doctor as I never knew him as a doctor. I’ve never seen him interact with patients. As a writer and comedian I’m sure he embellishes for dramatic/comic effect and I highly doubt he would ever have spoken to his patients in the way he writes about them now. Bottom line, I just can’t generate the level of outrage that some on here have for him.

[Sheepy11]

@TrashPandas

So why is mental health provision from the NHS so appalling, with most of us unable to get any treatment? If it's not an issue of underfunding, what is it?

I can only speak as a clinician on the frontline, our service is pretty well funded. Patients have to wait around two months to start a twenty session course of CBT, a couple of weeks to start a six week course of counselling or work with a step 2 PWP. We're always expanding, employing and training new therapists. I'm not sure if 'most of us' can't get any treatment is accurate across the board, we have literally hundreds of patients completing treatment every couple of months so clearly the care is there in some areas (ofc it should be this way across the board).

[Sheepy11]

@Fififelix

Meanwhile on the ward we have to watch patients ligaturing , headbanging inserting things into wounds I once watch someone put food in an arm flap. Constant de-escalation and restraints. Causing burnout and dehumanisation. I don't like what he wrote and how he made money from it. The book is about burnout really and the trauma from it.

Yes, we have quite a few MH nurses retrain to work in a therapy service. Same pay, much more comfortable working environment and you can actually do some good every single day.