This is going to hurt

I think I’ve got one or two episodes to go. Having a coffee and then putting iplayer back on. I remember when GP’s were on call all night but still had to do a full days work afterwards. I don’t think the patients realised that. I’d have to make extra strong coffee for them. Watching it has made me realise how much I loved working for the NHS ( apart from working for one doctor who not only made my life hell but was a terrible doctor). And I’ve just read an article in The Times about the nurse that’s just had a book published of the diary she kept about working on a covid ward so I’m feeling a bit emotional!

Medics have strange senses of humour - I spent my life married to one. They need some outlet for their uniquely stressful life. It wore my poor OH down.

The scene in the first episode where Adam was on a trolley holding in a prolapsed cord really does happen - my OH ran alongside a trolley, up in the lift and along the corridor to theatre with his hand inside a patient holding in the cord. That is not something that normally features in someone's life.

It all wore him out and made any semblance of home life very difficult. I think this aspect was very well depicted in the TV series. We all got used to Dad being permanently wrecked and under stress. I got used to him stopping being able to talk about it and get more and more unhappy. No job should wreck people's lives like this.

The depiction of the vast additional stress caused by the system in which they work was also well shown: endless paperwork, equipment failures, window-dressing for visiting dignitaries, staff going off with stress and the remaining staff doing double shifts, endless meetings to get basic needs met, doing a more than full-time job whilst also having to study for exams etc. The PC classes were real - I went to several when I was working in hospitals. My OH used to come home furious, fed up with wasting him time on this "bollocks," as he used to say, when work was piling up.

There was of course a degree of exaggeration - but really not much. It truly is a very very stressful environment and the arrogance of consultants was very real - I have some hope that this is less so now.

I thought the acting was excellent.

It was however quite a weird presentation in many ways and I can understand that someone who had not worked in the setting might find it far-fetched.

It appears the author is trying to hide some of his distasteful past.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10506277/This-Going-Hurt-author-Adam-Kay-sang-vile-songs-Downs-syndrome-baby.html

Lucca

I think it is excellent. A retired doctor friend has also praised it.
Great acting. Shruti is brilliant.

Shruti was indeed brilliant. Amazing acting.

We watched the first one. I didn't find it at all amusing. OH liked it though so we'll probably watch the next one. I'm reserving judgement. For one thing, I can't get on with Ben Wishaw. To my mind, he looks about 14 years old and that gets in the way of appreciating him in any acting role.

Black humour abounds amongst medics. It's how they keep going. Fabulous book and fabulous series.

We were looking forward to watching this, We enjoyed the book.
We turned it off, perhaps you can only ‘enjoy’ this if you have lived through similar situations?
All too frenetic for us although I don’t doubt that it’s true to life.

I think it is excellent. A retired doctor friend has also praised it.
Great acting. Shruti is brilliant.

I binge watched over 2 nights, I found it very funny but also shocking and tragic. Brilliant acting all round.

That’s interesting feedback from medics MayBee70. I must say I wasn’t that impressed by the first episode, and I thought it showed scary incompetence the like of which I didn’t see when I was working. However I appreciate it’s from a rather OTT black humour perspective, and does show the inhumanely long hours worked by young doctors where mistakes are likely to happen.

DD says all of her medic friends are loving it.

I’m going to binge watch it tonight. I don’t think many actors could have carried it off the way Ben has. He’s a terrific actor.

I binge watched this on i-player. I squirmed and laughed a lot. Loved it. Both the story and the acting were terrific. I hope Ben Whishaw gets an award for his portrayal.

When I worked for the NHS I found the doctors that used black humour the most tended to be the ones that put the most effort and care into looking after their patients. Having said that it isn’t fair of me to generalise as I didn’t work with lots of people.

when watching this you must remember he is now a comedian! ...not that I thought the 10 minutes of it that i watched before turning it off was funny at all.

For some reason I watched episode two instead of episode one last night so I’ve just watched episode one and it’s making more sense to me. If sense is the right word. It’s growing on me….

Nan6 I understand your misgivings. A doctor friend said all doctors should read the the book but no patients.
The placenta abrupta was very graphic, my daughter, and prem grandchild who came 10 weeks early, happily survived a similar event. I shan’t go out of my way to suggest that either watches the programme. Even a young doctor specialising in obs and gynae thought it luridly graphic. It’s far darker than I anticipated but I shall continue watching.

Nan6 I understand your misgivings. A doctor friend said all doctors should read the the book but no patients.
The placenta abrupta was very graphic, my daughter, and prem grandchild who came 10 weeks early, happily survived a similar event. I shan’t go out of my way to suggest that either watches the programme. Even a young doctor specialising in obs and gynae thought it luridly graphic. It’s far darker than I anticipated but I shall continue watching.

SueDonim

You may all be reassured to hear that my NQ medic daughter says in eight years she’s never come across a doctor, student or qualified, as incompetent as poor Shruti. Phew!

I dont know whether the nurses and doctors were incompetent or not, they left on my own to deliver my DC in hospital.

You may all be reassured to hear that my NQ medic daughter says in eight years she’s never come across a doctor, student or qualified, as incompetent as poor Shruti. Phew!

MayBee70 My second baby was induced. I had no idea how this would be done and was rather apprehensive. The midwife came in with a locum doctor who picked up an electrode and said "I've not used this one before, how does it work?" I did feel that I'd have liked one of us to know what we were doing! 44 years later DS still has a little bald spot where the electrode burnt his head.

Kate54 please don’t apologise just saying that some people have the kind of metabolism that allows them to eat a lot and not put on weight. Sadly that’s not me!! I actually used to worry about my son’s weight. He’s always been thin but he’s very healthy and has a normal appetite.

I seem to remember when I had my first baby two doctors reading a manual on how to put electrodes on the babies head. While I was saying ‘ hurry up, I haven’t voted yet’ ( it was the day Margaret Thatcher was elected). Although it might have been me imagining it having had various drugs….

Some of Adam's misadventures remind me of the unfortunate registrar who had to do DH's last bone marrow biopsy. If you don't know it can be a pretty unpleasant procedure and will hopefully be over fairly quickly. This poor chap must have taken a full 45 minutes coming out several times to change equipment and ask for advice all the while trying to look as if everything was under control. In the end it all went well and painlessly but we teased him unmercifully about it (he knew we didn't mean it, we'd all been through a lot together)