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.

@OhWhyNot

Over and over again many have posted this is a reflection on how work can be or was in the wards at that time

At times you have to see the amusing side it’s not laughing at patients it’s the ridiculous nature of work at times

And yes we are not always feeling empathetic to such ridiculous self indulgent requests or actions from patients or their families but we do our jobs

How come then when 3 Girls was commissioned, which was in part about misogyny in the social care and police system, it wasn’t a comedy about child trafficking?

The book isn’t a comedy it’s amusing at times and will have you in absolute tears.

I don’t know you will have to ask those that commissioned the show. I guess as the main theme of 3 Girls was about the most vulnerable children being raped

Have you read the books all those extra hours the times he went above and beyond his role the times he was floored but had to just get on with dealing with the next patient

Watched all of it now and thought it was well done as a series.
Best performance from Ben Whishaw since London Spy.
I was one who also had not clocked that Adam was gay, when I originally read his book - even though it is dedicated to his husband James.
It makes no difference whatsoever to the narrative or how I feel about possible misogyny - although I do recall on other threads (both TIGTH and RuPaul) some (not many) posters declaring that some (not many) gay men hate women: this is not my own experience and I am not sure where that possibly comes from, womanface aside (not my own gripe, I love RPDR). So no, Kay being gay, did not protect him from accusations of misogyny on other threads, it seemed to confirm it for some people. Odd but MN can be - I suspect Kay lost some on here, when he said he had a Patient GL, whose genetic make-up appears to be 50% goji berry recipes and 50% Mumsnet posts, has announced she wants to eat her placenta.
I think some anecdotadata said there were more gay men in obgyn than other branches but not sure why that would be or its relevance.
For me personally, my male obgyn, male midwife and male anaesthetist were great, three out my six female midwives were awful.
What I found interesting was my own assumption about Adam being straight as it must have been my own in-built prejudice - going back to the text, there is nothing there to suggest it. I think it was the juxtaposition of him saying bye, love you to the colleague who called him a good little doctor, as he was only used to H saying nice things to him. I also read a review which named H as Helen so it must have stuck.
www.annabelandgrace.com/this-is-going-to-hurt/
I loved Harry in the adaptation.
I do not think being closeted or hiding your sexuality is a slur in any case - given the double pressure of old boys' network and having Jewish parents - but was interested in the adaptation showing a protracted coming out. No idea if this was pure fiction to bulk out the story or was based on real life but omitted from the book as a personal choice, as it was originally meant to be an indictment of understaffing and budget cuts rather than homophobia or nepotism/elitism in the NHS.
Thought the character of Shruti and Houghton were very good. Noted the opposition to a male surgeon from a Muslim client was cut. Everything else faithful to the book and the added parts - calling out of the tattoo incident - means Kay has listened to criticisms.
I thought his screenplay showed a lack of ego. Saw his cameo and smiled.
He has a new book out in September called Undoctored. Summary here:
Adam Kay returns and will once again have you in stitches in his painfully funny and startlingly powerful follow-up, Undoctored: The Story of a Medic Who Ran out of Patients. In his most honest and incisive book yet, he reflects on what's happened since hanging up his scrubs and examines a life inextricably bound up with medicine. Battered and bruised from his time on the NHS frontline, Kay looks back, moves forwards and opens up some old wounds.

Harry is an absolute gem.
Miss Houghton...terrifying. And the singing! For a programme that most definitely not funny...Well, the singing was hilarious, so awkward.

@NurseButtercup actually I'm a paeds bed manager and am totally non clinical although I believe it would be better suited to a B4 clinical colleague than me as a non clinical B5. I do have 2 children of my own and have picked up a fair bit along the way but I am expected to make loose clinical decisions regarding patient placement etc.

What did annoy me was that the 25 weeker wasn't bagged immediately!

Or placed directly into a plastic bag. Or put straight under the radiant heater.

The neonatal stuff wasn't massively accurate to be fair.

Ventilated 25 weekers are never left unattended to. But I never once saw a neonatal nurse at the cotside...
But I guess the neonatal side wasn't the main focus of the series!

Agreed @Angelcupcake !!

In one of the episodes the neonatal nurse did tell him to go away when he first went to try and visit baby Mist because he knew he was the one who had delivered him and the back story.
I wasn't aware of the songs he co wrote as a student until I read about it on mn ( I found an old article saying he tried to get them taken down from the internet , but they are still there. )
Apparently they were written and performed for a charity gig in the early 00s. He has apologized for them.
They are bad ( apart from the parody song about the London Underground)
It's a wonder he hasn't been cancelled rather than commissioned based on these songs but maybe they were hoping it might all be forgotten or not known about or had been taken down or something ( I had no idea who he was or about the books before I saw it advertised and I'm sure I'm not the only one and I also avoid chat shows on tv too)

he apologised, he tried to prevent their further distribution, the point of them being possibly funny was because they were in such awful taste not because they said anything truthful --

I am tired of the "Never forgive people" fashion. Nothing can be redeemed although maybe it can with life-threatening anxiety and regret -- cue all the MNers with chronic crippling anxiety that society tells them is a GOOD thing constantly and the only thing that validates their sorry existence. then we wonder why they can't get better.

Pah.

I don't understand how something can be funny because it's in awful taste?!

@lljkk

he apologised, he tried to prevent their further distribution, the point of them being possibly funny was because they were in such awful taste not because they said anything truthful --

I am tired of the "Never forgive people" fashion. Nothing can be redeemed although maybe it can with life-threatening anxiety and regret -- cue all the MNers with chronic crippling anxiety that society tells them is a GOOD thing constantly and the only thing that validates their sorry existence. then we wonder why they can't get better.

Pah.

I agree if people are genuinely sorry and recognise something was wrong, he wrote and sang those songs whilst working as a medical professional, and only seemed keen to hide them once his book was a success so he could carry on making £££s. I think it says a lot about who he is as a person and seems reasonable if people don't want to support his career. Plenty still will so no big loss to him I'm sure.

I’m horrified that the NHS let barely qualified doctors deliver babies in an emergency situation.

I'm horrified that we, the electorate allow the government to so underfund the health service that it has such a shortage of doctors. I mean, where to you think all the doctors are? Do you thing there are loads of unemployed doctors sitting around somewhere or all the senior doctors are playing golf all day?

Still waiting on an answer as to why it’s absolutely fine to be a misogynist when it’s a ‘parody’ but we would never accept racism on this basis? Anyone?

@lljkk I also don’t agree with ‘never forgive anyone’ when they’ve done something fairly inconsequential but personally I find it hard to ‘forgive’ something who wrote:
Your baby has Trisomy
You shouldn't have kids at 53
He'll have severe mental retardation
How would you feel about a termination?

The fact he’s never so much as apologised or explained why he thinks this is ok makes it harder to ‘forgive’ him - and I agree with a PP that it’s very interesting who gets cancelled and who doesn’t.

He wrote that about children with Down Syndrome BTW

@Kendodd

I’m horrified that the NHS let barely qualified doctors deliver babies in an emergency situation.

I'm horrified that we, the electorate allow the government to so underfund the health service that it has such a shortage of doctors. I mean, where to you think all the doctors are? Do you thing there are loads of unemployed doctors sitting around somewhere or all the senior doctors are playing golf all day?

Labour were in power when this series is set

“Shruti also calls a miscarried baby a bunch of cells to the parents”

Imagine the uproar if it was Adam who made these comments, there would be more accusations of misogyny. But because it was Shruti it will be excused as a poor choice of words because she was stressed.

And that’s the whole point of the show. People fuck up when they’re stressed and overworked. And when you work in a hospital that can result in catastrophic outcomes. The NHS needs to be better funded and managed.

People have to learn on the job and it doesn't surprise me that this is how junior doctors learn their skills , consultants were all juniors once as well. If your in a life or death situation yourself you probably won't have time to look up the professionals to find out how much experience they have had before they operate on you.
My friends daughter has taken ten years to qualify as a junior and is still learning and will do for many years.
There was a kind of trust over this profession years ago, but now I'm afraid I just don't, but if it was case of dying or staying alive I won't have a choice but to trust the person doing the life saving as I don't know anything about operations or the inner workings or hierarchy of whatever hospital I find myself in! Could be a junior doctor or someone much better qualified, how would you know for sure (in that particular situation anyway? )

I am on episode 4 with miss Houghton ( big Mandy from
This country) and I am probably going to hell
Because I've really enjoyed it so far , there's been a few times where I've really laughed
My first born was a disgusting experience . Tues eve waters broke , early hours friday forceps then emergency C section , the next elective c section team
Told me the first delivery was a huge bodge job ... it happens I guess
I haven't seen anything about Adam Kay outside of this show I've got the book and haven't read it , I've not seen his songs or shows , in this he does have and use humour to deal with everything and seems to care in my opinion
I am really liking this show

Exactly @SnottyLottie

I love the ' Big Mandy ' actress ( this country ) she always plays the same kind of characters , but she does it really well.

Shruti's 'bunch of cells' comment reminded me of my D&C after miscarriage 30 years ago to 'remove the products of conception'. That cut me to the core then - such a heartless choice of words!

Did I mention any political party?

This has been a chronic problem for decades. To give 1997 Labour their credit though, they did go a long way to reducing wait times. Balance this out with the terrible private finance thing, awful policy. In fairness though, when elected they had promised to stick to Tory spending plans and perhaps saw this as a way to increase funding. It was still an absolute God awful mistake though. Wait times have crept up again (pre covid) since the Tories came back. One good thing they've done though is introduce the role of physicians assistant, that might help. I also hope vaccinator becomes a permanent role within the NHS as that might reduce a bit of pressure.

Fundamental they just need to train more staff. My daughter wants to do medicine and we've read that only 25% of applicants get a place. I'm sure at least another 25% would make perfectly good doctors but are rejected while at the same time we have a massive shortage of doctors. And before someone points it out , yes I know we won't feel the benefit of these students for ten years but at least we would have them then instead of being in the same situation in ten years time. I think governments, of all colours, have made the calculation that it's cheaper to import hcp than to train them ourselves. I remember Thatcher making nurses redundant in the 80s!