In Stitches: The Highs and Lows of Being an A&E Doctor

I really enjoy the sort of books that take a real-life, blood-guts-warts-n-all look at the health system (as well as anything in the Babylon series). I found this book when looking at the ‘other people who viewed these items’ section on a website. (In case you’re interested, I was looking at Max Pemberton’s fantastic books on life as a junior doctor).

So as you’ve already deduced, this book is a reality check on hospitals, medicine and the National Health Service in the UK. The author, Dr Nick Edwards (not his real name), started writing after his wife got sick of him whinging about his life as an accident and emergency (A &E) doctor. This book is compiled of his rants, raves and stories – some hilarious, some terrifically show more sad.

If you’re not familiar with some of the idiosyncrasies of the NHS, don’t worry. Edwards explains the bureaucracy in simple terms and the issues the doctors ‘on the floor’ have with things that are familiar to Australian audiences too, such as the ‘four hour rule’. (Simply put, this means everyone who comes into an emergency department must be in a ward or discharged within four hours. However, this doesn’t take into account delays with imaging, waiting for test results, review by doctors who have been up for 24 hours and need sleep etc. Edwards explores some of the more ‘creative’ ways this rule is circumvented). Occasionally Edwards’ lamenting about the poor state of the NHS does get tedious, but he always follows up with an entertaining anecdote regarding people who accidently ‘sit’ on carrots that are vertical or trip and fall into a pineapple.

There are also sad stories – unexpected deaths due to trauma and elderly with nobody to care for them. Drunkenness and patients under the influence are also explored, as are many minor illnesses – some that the average person wouldn’t dream of going to the emergency department for!

This is a light read that takes you through a rollercoaster of emotions. Plus, next time you’ll understand the true dangers of fruit and vegetables!

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In Stitches: The highs and lows of life as an A&E doctor by Nick Edwards is an autobiographical account of a doctor's life in a busy A&E department. The hospital is representative of any number of A&E's up and down the country and Dr Edwards uses a journal style to deliver a series of humorous snapshots of what life is like. It is full of tongue-in-cheek humour and sarcasm, especially directed at the ever increasing bureaucracy, as well as touching moments such as allowing a elderly patient to die with dignity. It came across as a believable portral of life as an A&E doctor.

It's a gripping read which I got through within a few hours and often whilst laughing out loud. My only criticism is that the frequent rants about the bureaucracy show more and future of the NHS becomes wearing over time, and depending on your politics could become annoying by the end of the book. The humour does little to soften the political message in parts.

Overall a very funny and engrossing read. show less

I really enjoyed this book - it''s been on my list to read for a long time.

I liked the structure of short chapters, each with a unique storyline of their own. The author justifies his 'rant' frequently and often reminds the reader that there are many good aspects of the NHS. Some of the chapters have titles such as 'why I love being an A&E Dr' which give some balance to the overall feel of the book and prevent the book from being criticised as a negative rant throughout. I hope many managers and accountants in the NHS have read this book and taken note of the unintended consquences that some policies have brought about. It would be good to think that the book may have been used as a catalyst for positive and ongoing change in the NHS.

The author could have more of his totally justified polemic on the care of Patients from with the A&E hospital system. The essays read like an equilateral triangle that moved sharply up before falling to the other side without more shape to make the book more readable.
This book could potentially be a Five Stars but it needs more editing and shape to bring it to it's full magnificent potentiality.

This is like a blog from an Emergency Room/ A&E Doctor, his thoughts and his ideas, a lot of it sounds like stuff that could teach the Irish Health system a lot.

This was, essentially, one long rant against NHS management decisions and it wasn't even written in any interesting way either.

Rather uninformative apart from shortcomings of the NHS system, and quite boring to boot.

a fantastic read i would recommend this book to anyoneand a last someone who recognises the role that hcas peform within the nhs