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Your Life in My Hands - review

 


Synopsis:

In this heartfelt, deeply personal account of life as a junior doctor in today's health service, former television journalist turned doctor, Rachel Clarke, captures the extraordinary realities of ordinary life on the NHS front line. From the historic junior doctor strikes of 2016 to the 'humanitarian crisis' declared by the Red Cross, the overstretched health service is on the precipice, calling for junior doctors to draw on extraordinary reserves of what compelled them into medicine in the first place - and the value the NHS can least afford to lose - kindness.

Your Life in My Hands is at once a powerful polemic on the systematic degradation of Britain's most vital public institution, and a love letter of optimism and hope to that same health service and those who support it. This extraordinary memoir offers a glimpse into a life spent between the operating room and the bedside, the mortuary and the doctors' mess, telling powerful truths about today's NHS frontline, and capturing with tenderness and humanity the highs and lows of a new doctor's first steps onto the wards in the context of a health service at breaking point - and what it means to be entrusted with carrying another's life in your hands.

My Review:

A book that is more political than medical, though does have a few interesting anecdotes. Dr Clarke writes in a raw and emotional way, stating the facts while adding emotional stories to clearly show the terrible state of the NHS in 2016 (from which it has never recovered)

I did find the book quite repetitive at times, with some facts and events being repeated past being effective. However I did think it showed a comprehensive account of the junior doctor strikes and fully explored a lot of the politics behind the series of events more than I would have thought.

I would recommend this book as an eye opener to the struggles of NHS workers and the unbelievable stupidness of the British government. Just be warned that it is very politics heavy.

My Rating: 7/10

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