This is Going to Hurt - starts 8th Feb

[ouch321]

I loved the book of this by Adam Kay. I know others weren't so keen.
BBC has dramatised this and starts in early Feb. Just a heads up for others who liked the book.

Yup, that’s how I interpreted it. He also said it would take an hour in theatre to repair.

I remember Adam having a girlfriend in the book too. I was surprised when watching the TV adaptation to see he is gay. Not that it matters, I was worried dementia had crept in early!

The elderly lady who told him
To get a hair cut 🤣🤣🤣

@CovidCorvid

Have to say I’ve never seen a doctor have a private conversation during a delivery though. I have however reported an anaesthetist who was always on the internet during sections.

Well this explains how that male midwife in the news was able to get away with photographing women during theatre births :(

Glad you reported that staff member.

Yes all work environments have humour but the question is how that humour affects the work culture of the institution. Recently police officers have been shown to take selfies with the bodies of female murder victims, share sexist memes guarding the site where a police officer raped and murdered a woman and routinely make misogynistic jokes about female crime victims. This reflects an environment where women have bad experiences of the police. There are loads of stories on this site alone where women have felt that sexism has played a role in their poor treatment by medical professionals. I agree that television dramas should depict medical misogyny but this difference between this programme and Bodies, for example, is that it's making excuses for the misogynist. It is a work of fiction but the main character is so tied up with Adam Kay and his form for derogatory attitudes (see the song about northern women that someone posted earlier) that one can't help but wonder how he treated patients.

It's depressing all the woman here who don't recognise misogyny when they see it.

If the sides were flipped men would be crying out misandry!

CovidCorvid

He didn’t specifically say 3rd degree but fairly sure he said “you’ve torn into your back passage”.

Ah! I didn't hear that bit. Yikes - poor woman.

Aka a third degree

Yes, I know what it means, but thanks anyway.

@DemBonesDemBones

I'm a pretty fierce feminist and I've also had a horrendous birth and I can honestly say I didn't read anything at all in the book that made me think AK was a misogynist. I'm quite shocked at how many people read it that way! I loved the book and I loved the first episode-I'm looking forward to the rest.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. I think in both the book and tv adaptation he comes across as though he does care deep down and uses humour (albeit misplaced at times) as a coping mechanism. I had a terrible birth including tearing but cannot get offended by the depiction in the first episode. If I recall correctly he explains the seriousness of tearing in the book and did not come across as minimalising what women go through. I was going to say he’s more of a misanthropist than a misogynist but I don’t think that’s quite correct. It’s not a dislike of people as a whole but the systems, politics and the corrupt individuals that feed that. Either way, as a PP said, it’s supposed to be entertainment not a documentary.

Imagine if there was only politically correct, factually accurate programmes that only had content that could never be offensive to anyone ever. TV would be extremely boring.

No one is obliged to watch this programme so if people believe it is misogynistic and offensive then no need to watch or attempt to belittle people who do!

I read it in the same way as the pp, it came across as a coping mechanism IMO. Just watches E2 and really liking it so far.

I hated it.

All i could see all the way through was the utter contempt for women and ignoring of consent.

It struck me as sadly realistically, in all the wrong ways.

I'm enjoying it , episode 3 so far and he is really struggling with the premature baby , he's knitted boots for him too , he def cares

I'm really not seeing the misogyny at all (& I'm a staunch feminist) - what I see is a young doctor struggling to cope & doing the best he can. He seems to really care to me (I'm on episode 3).

It does harrowingly show the NHS fucked up priorities though with the 'language' training yet everything else is chronically underfunded & falling apart.

Haven’t watched this yet but read the book a while ago.

It further supported my argument against male obs/gynae staff.

@foxlover47

I'm enjoying it , episode 3 so far and he is really struggling with the premature baby , he's knitted boots for him too , he def cares

I thought it was only on once a week? How did you watch them @foxlover47?

I read the book and have watched episode 1 on iplayer so far.

I didn't see it as especially sexist or degrading to women. Rather it left me wondering if my daughter who is looking to go in to medicine has the emotional strength and resilience to make a career in the field. It was the power hierarchy that left me depressed and saw that as the negative.

I had a few friends who are in medicine, some of whom I have known since they were in university and they have always been extremely tired and work orientated but have also played hard and used alcohol as a prop when times were tough.

Apparently he was married to a woman, then came out as gay at some point after that. An acquaintance who is old mates with him told me that yesterday.

I haven't read the book.
Nor have I given birth, which possibly means I see it differently.

I enjoyed it.

To me it showed the stress the doctors and nurses are under, too many patients, not enough time, sometimes having to compromise on one patent for the benefit of others etc. Doctors need their 'dark humour' to get them through their lives.

I can see why 'rewriting' notes happens. The consultant knew the doctor had learned from the event. Plus the consultant knew he had pressured Adam to work 2 shifts and to not bother him. Lessons learned.

I thought it was only on once a week? How did you watch them @foxlover47?
They are all on iplayer

Thank you @DappledThings, that's my day sorted and everything else abandoned

ignoring of consent

Where was that? Do you mean the women who didn't want an Asian doctor? There was also the women with the cord falling out of her where he acted very quickly, can't remember how much warning he gave her or consent gained.

What do they do if a patient only wants a white doctor?

Haven't read the book. Have had a very difficult birth, not helped by an overworked registrar on a Saturday night, which ended in an emergency caesarian. Have only watched episode 1.

Adam Kay is very clearly depicted as a flawed human being, especially through Ben Whishaw's nuanced performance. He is irritable, quite arrogant, treats patients as though they're objects on a conveyor belt and is bullying towards the junior he should be helping to develop. We understand that he is under intense pressure, but nothing excuses boorish behaviour.

The overall impression is that Adam Kay would have been exactly the same, whatever his specialism. If he'd chosen to be a prostate specialist, we would have seen the same attitudes towards his male patients. He would have treated junior male colleagues just as he treats the lovely Shruti (see Lockhart's behaviour towards him).

His treatment of the "time waster" is patronising and - let's face it - negligent and he fully acknowledges this. Yes, he's tired, but the programme is clear that he has made an awful mistake, at least in part because of his character.

I might have an entirely different opinion if I'd read the book, but the TV adaptation suggests he has a misanthropic, rather than misogynist, streak.

@Kendodd

ignoring of consent

Where was that? Do you mean the women who didn't want an Asian doctor? There was also the women with the cord falling out of her where he acted very quickly, can't remember how much warning he gave her or consent gained.

What do they do if a patient only wants a white doctor?

There were a couple of occasions that it left me feeling hmmm.

The woman being racist was one - she couldn't refuse a doctor on the basis of being Asian. The problem was that the doctor confirmed he would be the only doctor doing the procedure and then because he felt like it (for no medical reason) just changed his mind half way through, which isn't ok. The result was the racist woman finding out midway through surgery which (rightly or wrongly) distressed her. She needed to be told BEFORE hand what was going to happen.

There were a couple of other - non emergency situations where i felt consent had been assumed rather than sought because of the way communication was done.

There was a lot of general talking about patients in their presence as if they were pieces of meat rather than sentient beings in the room.

There whole attitude of women being an inconvenience was disturbing. I don't buy into the 'stressed overworked registrar' being an acceptable excuse tbh. It was a bad attitude and if thats how he felt in real life, frankly he should have left a whole lot sooner than he did.

It just seems to echo and confirm the bad experiences women have talked about for years and to treat it as a joke rather than a massively serious failure of care which leaves women traumatised.

It was devoid of any compassion what so ever. It was just women 'being difficult' or a 'nuisance' and ruining his day in various multiple ways

I was left with the feeling that ultimately he just couldn't be arsed.

I found myself wondering how much less kindly Lockhart would have treated a female Adam.

Yes it's entertainment, but it's being portrayed as real life memoirs and Adam Kay was involved in the production, so I feel very OK about judging him on the behaviour portrayed. I've always been wary of medical professionals since knowing them as students - stories where they were completely disrespectful to donated corpses when the tutor's back was turned were very common, including playing catch/keepy uppy with dissected organs. Also the acronyms such as FUBAR BUNDY ("fucked up beyond all recognition but unfortunately not dead yet") from a friend working in intensive care makes me see them in a different light to the sainthood imposed on them by others. I thought the above was a myth but sadly not - medicine is still the prestige field for certain classes and there seems to be very little assessment of them for empathy and respect, just exam results and experience leading sports teams etc.

I don't find it entertaining to be seeing the real life - institutionally accepted and normalised - fucking awful attitudes by some in the NHS.

It should be a scandal to be addressed not a fucking comedy.