I've just watched all seven episodes of the BBC series This Is Going To Hurt.
I’m not a fan of medical dramas as they rarely reflect my own nursing experience or the stories of medic pals.
And while I loved Adam Kay’s doctor diaries, I wondered if they would work on telly with all the gore and gallows humour.
But Ben Whishaw is a bloody marvel as the bone-weary junior doctor.
And the bruising drama should be prescribed viewing for every Tory politician who’s rolled up their sleeves for a photo op in a gleaming hospital unit.
Because they never get to see what it’s REALLY like on the tatty, bodily fluid-spattered NHS front line.
Or how the heroes they clapped for those other photo-ops perform daily miracles with clapped-out equipment, staff shortages and chronic underfunding.
So this series is a visceral and timely reminder of the true face of our NHS.
And the weary features of its doctors and nurses should wipe the smiles off MPs’ mugs.
But, shockingly, Adam Kay’s story is set in 2006 when New Labour had got the NHS into remission. So what is it like NOW after a decade of Tory austerity and their bungled handling of a pandemic?
The NHS is in a critical condition.
Six million people are now languishing on waiting lists while millions more haven’t bothered seeking treatment.
While the Government calls this “a Covid backlog” the pre-pandemic queue had hit a record 4.5 million before, thanks to 100,000 staff shortages.
They can’t even agree on a treatment plan to try and ease the pain.
This week the Prime Minister was forced to cancel his own recovery op because the Chancellor and Health Secretary are arguing about the cost.
So he rushed out a plan to clear the cancer queue, then admitted it will take more than a year.
Patients have been suffering and dying thanks to 10 long years of Tory incompetence.
Now they expect us to swallow the bitter pill that waiting times “will get worse before they get better”.
How long is this going to keep on hurting?
