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

This is another book of short, almost blog-like chapters recounting adventures in a particular job -- this one an A&E (Emergency Room to an American) doctor. As other reviews note, it is short on stories about things that happened on the job and long on explanation and commentary about the National Health Service. But to this American that's the interesting part -- the insight it gives into the mindset of a British physician. Other reviews suggest that its author is critical of the NHS; on the contrary, he believes in it fervently.American doctors think of themselves as independent professionals, even if they happen to practice in a group or hospital setting. But Edwards clearly sees himself as a salaried employee of a large government health-and-safety bureaucracy -- something more like a policeman or fireman. He works the shifts he is assigned, fights turf wars with fellow bureaucrats, complains about his bosses, hopes to earn a promotion, fears being transferred to another city. He is a loyal bureaucrat, proud of his agency -- the NHS is, he lets us know, one of the great creations of British history -- and at base content to do his job according to the rules, standards, and procedures it dictates. His concern is simply that those rules, standards, and procedures are not all they could be, so some should be changed.It can take ten days to get an x-ray report to the A&E? He isn't allowed to refer a patient to a specialist? In America those things would get doctors sued and hospitals closed down. To Edwards they're annoyances that certainly aren't in the patients' best interests and so the NHS should tweak the system to fix them. But he tells us more than once that he wouldn't want to practice nasty for-profit medicine, where people care more about profit than about patients.For what the book says unintentionally, then, its interesting. For what it says intentionally, it isn't very. For a book on the life of a British doctor that's short on NHS commentary and long on stories, try "Sick Notes."

I agree with all the reviews that complain that this book is a rant about the NHS (although richly deserved, I know). I am a retired RN, 10 years of my career being spent in the ER and the rest in ICU. I am English and grew up in London during the 50s and 60s, so I know first hand how bad the NHS is. I have had to deal with it since as a spokesman for my elderly parents, and it has improved a bit but not much. Nevertheless I wonder why this doctor has no passion for his field of work, as all the MDs who write similar books here do and as I always had for mine.I tried to edit this but it wouldn't let me. Having got to the end of the book I realized I had misjudged this doctor. He cares a lot about the patients and the system, as evidenced in the chapter "Two similar patients but two different outcomes."

Another book written by a medical doctor. Not one of my favorites, but it still holds a lot of interest. This doctor works in Britain, and he is quite critical of the way the hospitals systems are handled there with their socialized medicine, although basically, he seems to be in favor of the system. He criticizes the "managers" and thinks the rules should be made by people with "on the floor" experience.

I found it interesting to read about the differences in mainly the frustrations of doctors who work in the Accident and Emergency department of hospitals in Great Britain as opposed to those in the United States. They seem to have so much more frustration because they work for the government and can't do very much to change things that seem to not be in the best interest of their patients. The joys and the humor, however are much the same.

This book was easy to read and interesting. Just wish it was not a “representation” of several patient stories as one.

I was disappointed, to say the least. I thought I was buying a medical novel with an actual story and plot. What I got was page after page of complaints about what's wrong with the medical system in Britain. Some of the accounts given were interesting, but not what I had expected. His complaints and objections need to go to other ears than mine.

Needs a better glosary for us yanks. Spent as much time googling street and medical slang as I did reding the book and I'm a retired R.N.

this is a very informative book written by a British doctor who is telling stories to illustrate all the problems with Britain's NHS...

Filled with repetitive moaning about being an a and e doctor, which may only slightly interest you if you are also an a and e doctor. The tales from the department were lacking in any meaningful detail and had little to no impact. I ended up skipping a lot of the repeated moaning, a very disorganised ramble. By the end I disliked the writer enormously and do not share his sense of humour, or attempts at it.Seriously don't bother, there are quite a few similar books which achieve what this book totally fails to capture and give an nteresting, inspiring and amusing insight into the medical world. Please tell me there isn't a sequel..

Absolutely fantastic book. EVERYBODY should read it. It made me laugh, cry and made me stop and think. I’m a retired midwife and in my opinion the NHS is a system that needs to be treasured especially if we have doctors such as Nick working in it. Since he appears to have ALL the answers please stand for Parliament and become the next Minister for Health and put all your suggestions into practice. Get rid of all the pen pushing managers and useless administrators and pay for more ground level staff. When I trained many moons ago we had a Matron and an assistant matron, who perhaps had a secretary. I don’t remember there being so many administrators as are presently employed in the various trust hospitals. My husband swears that Maggie Thatcher ruined the NHS and as a result when Labour came into power were unable to reverse all the harm done.

I recently read "Confessions of a GP" by Ben Daniels, and this book is recommended by that author. Very good, very honest, very "You're kidding! They can't do that!" Gives you an apparently honest insight to working in an A&E department. Like the author of the book I mentioned above, rants on about the 4-hour rule, and about the government's policies which brought such rules in. To be honest, these rants are justified for the most part; it's a shame our political leaders can't sample what goes on in A&E, but I'm sure they all have private healthcare, so why should they worry about it? This book shows that doctors, like us all, enjoy a laugh/drink/flirt, and need to have their own way of dealing with the things they see on a daily basis. An entertaining read, sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, sometimes sad, but worthwhile.

A very interesting read. You get an insight into the real life of a doctor. If you're thinking it will be filled with tales of working with patients and their ailments with a smattering of political or managerial frustrations then this might not be for you. It is the opposite. As the author mentions during the book, this is his way of letting out his frustrations about working for the NHS. I am amazed at what doctors & nurses on the frontline have to deal with just to satisfy the bureaucrats rather than be allowed to concentrate on their medical and patient skills. Even as I write this, 14 years after the book was written (and during a pandemic), the politicians and NHS management still tell the general public what a good job they are doing. Still the medical staff on the frontline are left to pick up the pieces.

If I could award 0 stars I would. It quickly became clear whilst reading this book that the author has no idea of what 'politically correct' actually means, given that he applies it to any situation from health and safety considerations to showing commonsense respect to patients and other members of the services. His incredibly glib attempts at humour betray a penchant for 1970s era attitudes, whilst his peevish reflections on patients are often gratuitously judgemental. Not recommended, sorry.