Book info

• Title In Stitches
• Author Nick Edwards
• Year 2007
• Genre Non-fiction

Forget what you have seen on Casualty or Holby City, this is what it is really like to be working in A&E. Dr Nick Edwards writes with shocking honesty about life as an A&E doctor. He lifts the lid on government targets that led to poor patient care. He reveals the level of alcohol-related injuries that often bring the service to a near standstill. He shows just how bloody hard it is to look after the people who turn up at the hospital door. But he also shares the funny side – the unusual ‘accidents’ that result in with weird objects inserted in places they really should have ended up – and also the moving, tragic and heartbreaking.

Thoughts

I’ve read a few medical memoirs, and they tend to follow a similar pattern - heart-warming stories offset by the frustrations of a sprawling mess of a national health service. This has that at its core but I think focuses more on the problems than the patients, although apologetically so. Edwards admits it himself that as he’s keeping this as something of a diary, it tends to be the bad days that draw more attention, the rants he needs to release, that hit the page. But there are some upsides to the down, some days that keep the spirits up, so that overall it’s a good and enlightening read.

Rating: 3 / 5