This is going to hurt

Do read the book Jaxjacky there's a lot more in it and some of it is very funny.

Final episode last night. I’ve enjoyed the whole series, not read the book.

I think that was intended Calendargirl, they have to learn and grow up so quickly. As they have said in the series a few times "See one, do one, teach one".
I've just watched the final episode, very moving. As the mother of a doctor, I do feel a bit guilty. Going into medicine was 100% his idea but we supported him and were so proud when he got into medical school. Shortly after that I had to go into a hospital and I thought "What have we done? These places are horrendous to work in!"
He's had his ups and downs, but I think he is reasonably happy with his career choice.

Adam Kay comes across as extremely unlikeable.

I don’t know what the time lapse is meant to be between episodes, but poor Shruti seemed to be a very junior doctor a couple of weeks ago, last night she seemed so professional and in charge all round.

What a sad ending.

It certainly packed a big punch tonight. ?

It was very sad and took me right back.

It was so sad and depressing tonight.

I spent a few weeks working in the kitchen of a brand new private hospital which had been built next to a big NHS one. Carpet on the floors and be sure to cut the crusts off the sandwiches! I was told that it was just as well that they were next to the NHS one because they didn't really have the facilities to deal with real emergencies and no doctors on duty overnight.

What an episode tonight, juxtaposition between private and NHS, sad too, well acted.

No Deedaa especially if it was your fault. Very hard to come to terms with. Doctors are not perfect, most of us would not be, especially working under pressure with long hours.

MayBee70 The lovely young registrar who was talking to me while DH was dying said that unfortunately, working on a cancer ward, they did get used to deaths. I asked him why he had chosen it. Why not do something like obstetrics with lots of babies. His answer was "But what if a baby died? I couldn't cope with that!"

Our local hospital declared a critical incident last weekend, as many hospitals are doing at present, even as Covid admissions are decreasing.
So sorry for staff and patients alike, it can’t keep going much longer like this.

I think it’s so finely balanced, Aveline that an unexpected surge of early births and/or emergencies can overwhelm them. They possibly had staffing issues, too.

It must be awful to be a mum turned away at the door and having to find somewhere else. It’s really not good enough, is it?

SueDonim what a nightmare situation. Tough on staff but imagine how awful to be in labour and turned away from the hospital. Surely the bed manager could tell how many women would be likely/possibly going to deliver? Pregnancy is fairly measurable timewise so estimate number of women at 40ish weeks then allow for some premature deliveries. Not medics or nurses fault. Managers should be able to manage better than that!

Farzanah

He really seemed much nicer and human than portrayed when I saw him at an event promoting his book.

If someone like that has to leave the profession because they can’t cope imagine what it’s like for someone more sensitive and compassionate. Difficult to get the balance right.

I haven’t got around to the second episode yet but the pressures staff are under are horrendous.

My young medic dd had an appalling overnight shift on Maternity this week when they ran out of beds. No women were ready to go home yet so they had women who’d had their babies unable to leave the delivery rooms for the post-natal wards because there were no beds.

The labour wards were also full and in the meantime they had women pouring in the front doors, some in labour, some in dire emergency situations, and there was nowhere to put them. Staff had to do their best to attend to them, but many were turned away and had to find others hospitals to go to. In the end, the entire unit was closed until they could regain control.

My dd found it very distressing to be unable to offer women the care they needed and that she wants to offer them. She said it was the shift from hell.

He really seemed much nicer and human than portrayed when I saw him at an event promoting his book.

I didn't like the Adam Kay character but Shruti was very well written and acted. So sad.

I wasn’t keen after the first episode but last night felt an affinity with him. I can understand the feeling after making a mistake. In some jobs it’s ok, you learn from it and move on, but mistakes in medicine can be life endangering, and it does require a certain temperament and support for it not to ruin a career. It also can, as shown, cause over treatment/investigation due to lack of confidence.
Rather sad I thought.

Aveline

Was he just working in the wrong speciality?

When I was expecting DC3 I saw a consultant from New Zealand. He was quite rude and dismissive and for no apparent reason mentioned the possibility of a Caesarian.

The sister who was with him said afterwards there was absolutely no need, that the number of Caesarians had gone up since he arrived and that the nurses all said he didn't like women and liked cutting them open!

Something of a tortured soul I think and quite dismissive of people of a lesser intellect.

Or indeed any patient he had to deal with...

I really enjoyed the book and the drama on tv which I binge watched over 3 days.

However the person concerned Adam Kay seems a pretty messed up personality.

Gallows humour it may well be and I'm swimming against the tide on this thread, but I'm agreeing with Janice Turner in finding it "unbearable hateful towards women, especially pregnant ones. They're just thick cows, malingerers, bigots, vaginas or slabs of meat" and the link above says a lot about Adam Kay too imo!

He went to boarding school, struggled mightily with any kind of relationship with his mother and is gay. Maybe he doesn’t like women much? He comes across as a clever man “with complex issues”. Something of a tortured soul I think and quite dismissive of people of a lesser intellect.

Was he just working in the wrong speciality?

Watching least nights programme I was taken right back to my ward sister days. As nurses we often bailed the junior doctors out not just with tea, toast and sympathy but with correcting and guiding them especially preparing them for consultants ward rounds.

I think maybe we should think about what it’s like to be responsible for keeping people alive and how anyone of us would cope with knowing that we had failed that someone. Because no doctor will go through their professional career without making a mistake and they have find coping mechanisms to deal with that.