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4.41 AVERAGE
4.41 AVERAGE
Pretty great, exactly what you'd expect. Ripped through it in 2 days, hard to put down. Great humor, shocking tragedy and some outright disgusting things. Fascinating read
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
Inside view of the NHS, and it's pretty brutal. Personally, funny, sad, impactful. Policy wise, here are my thoughts, especially on all the "NHS Reform" thoughts going on right now, and the Labour government removing NHS England to move it back within their Ministry purview:
• Efficiency, innovation, and good service is about much more than “duplication, red tape, or bureacracy.” It’s about the core of organization, capacities, and culture.
• the NHS was designed in the 1950s, like the wider UK welfare system, for 1950s problems, and in a 1950s style of industrial-efficiency. That’s the core of the issues behind the NHS today — it does not have structural measures for evolution, innovation, or adaption built in.
• The NHS is very good at doing silo-specific things well. But it is not good at thinking about cross-silo issues. The rise in non-communicable diseases (e.g. heart diseases, diabetest, lifestyle disease), social determinants of health, etc, require very different thinking than optimizing a department for a specific disease need.
• The mechanized, silod nature of the NHS can mean it can seen actively disincentivized to be trying to improve things or go outside of your strict job description or silo, which is “do this thing well within these metrics.” Example, talked to someone who created a health tech innovation for predicting STIs based on mental health, and the answer for the STI department was “but we don’t do mental health.”
• The challenges for doing design, innovation, and change well -- when there is no headspace for staff for anything besides getting through / protecting their jobs. No time, no connection to patients, active dis-incentivization of anything besides “do your job.” People as cogs ina system.
• Efficiency, innovation, and good service is about much more than “duplication, red tape, or bureacracy.” It’s about the core of organization, capacities, and culture.
• the NHS was designed in the 1950s, like the wider UK welfare system, for 1950s problems, and in a 1950s style of industrial-efficiency. That’s the core of the issues behind the NHS today — it does not have structural measures for evolution, innovation, or adaption built in.
• The NHS is very good at doing silo-specific things well. But it is not good at thinking about cross-silo issues. The rise in non-communicable diseases (e.g. heart diseases, diabetest, lifestyle disease), social determinants of health, etc, require very different thinking than optimizing a department for a specific disease need.
• The mechanized, silod nature of the NHS can mean it can seen actively disincentivized to be trying to improve things or go outside of your strict job description or silo, which is “do this thing well within these metrics.” Example, talked to someone who created a health tech innovation for predicting STIs based on mental health, and the answer for the STI department was “but we don’t do mental health.”
• The challenges for doing design, innovation, and change well -- when there is no headspace for staff for anything besides getting through / protecting their jobs. No time, no connection to patients, active dis-incentivization of anything besides “do your job.” People as cogs ina system.
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
fast-paced
This was a great read. A bunch of anecdotes, and laugh out loud moments, but the real takeaway from it is how critical universal healthcare systems like the NHS are. Fight the corporatization of healthcare.
From ha-ha hi-hi to blurry eyes, quiet sobs in the sleepless starless night.
This was funny until it wasn't. Then it was little sad, then heartbreaking.
100/10
This was funny until it wasn't. Then it was little sad, then heartbreaking.
100/10
I really liked this book. Following a medical memoir that I didn't quite like, this memoir-slash-diary by Adam Kay, chronicling his years-long stint as a Junior Doctor was such a breath of fresh air and something that is much better.
In This Is Going To Hurt, Kay was funny, honest, and grounded. In fact, he created this book as an answer “when the government started waging war on doctors—forcing them to work harder than ever for less money than ever” in 2016, making this very political, as most things are. And in diary entries spanning six years as a Junior Doctor, we saw the actual things our medical practitioners faced on a daily—from petty and trivial matters like a non-working computer or funny email addresses to much more serious events that mostly involved death.
Adam Kay said it was going to hurt and indeed, it did. But it was also entertaining, honest and poignant, and ultimately unforgettable.
In This Is Going To Hurt, Kay was funny, honest, and grounded. In fact, he created this book as an answer “when the government started waging war on doctors—forcing them to work harder than ever for less money than ever” in 2016, making this very political, as most things are. And in diary entries spanning six years as a Junior Doctor, we saw the actual things our medical practitioners faced on a daily—from petty and trivial matters like a non-working computer or funny email addresses to much more serious events that mostly involved death.
Adam Kay said it was going to hurt and indeed, it did. But it was also entertaining, honest and poignant, and ultimately unforgettable.
funny
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
"This Is Going to Hurt" by Adam Kay is a hilarious yet sobering memoir that offers a glimpse into the chaotic life of a junior doctor in the NHS. Kay's sharp wit shines through as he shares laugh-out-loud anecdotes, like the woman who mistakenly ate a bowl of blood clots instead of her placenta, which is as gross as it is funny.
While the humor is abundant, there's a poignant undercurrent that reveals the terrifying realities of healthcare—junior doctors stretched to their limits, often working for free, in a crumbling system. This blend of comedy and stark truth makes for a compelling read that is both entertaining and thought-provoking. A must-read for anyone who enjoys dark humor and insights into the medical profession!
While the humor is abundant, there's a poignant undercurrent that reveals the terrifying realities of healthcare—junior doctors stretched to their limits, often working for free, in a crumbling system. This blend of comedy and stark truth makes for a compelling read that is both entertaining and thought-provoking. A must-read for anyone who enjoys dark humor and insights into the medical profession!
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced