YMF Book Reviews - This Is Going to Hurt by Dr. Adam Kay

Written by Vivaan Kapoor, Youth Medical Forum Leader

So I told them the truth: the hours are terrible, the pay is terrible, the conditions are terrible; you’re underappreciated, unsupported, disrespected and frequently physically endangered. But there’s no better job in the world.

This Is Going to Hurt by Dr Adam Kay is a hilarious yet shocking collection of diary entries. The entries span around six years of Kay’s work as a junior doctor in the British NHS (National Health Service). He is a graduate of Imperial College London and works in a specialization in obstetrics and gynaecology.

The entries give an exposé on the life of a junior doctor as he balances it with his relationships and mental health. He explores his inner thoughts when interacting with different patients. Readers are shocked to learn about the challenges of working as a junior doctor which includes being severely underpaid and working long hours without rest. This collection of ‘secret’ diary entries was published by Kay in response to the 2015 junior doctor contract dispute in England where Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt threatened to cut overtime in the new NHS junior contracts. Kay, who is now a writer, reflects on the satisfaction of being a doctor and helping patients out and uses his entries as a way of communicating and revealing the life of a junior doctor in the NHS.