John Blake Publishing Ltd Your Life In My Hands - a Junior Doctor's Story: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Dear Life

Having read, and been moved by "Dear Life" I was interested to read this written before Rachel Clarke specialised in palliative care. This book gives a good account of life as a junior (even up to 6 years after qualifying) doctor, but probably more importantly, highlights what is wrong in our health service. If Jeremy Hunt, who was Health Minister at the time this book alludes to, has read this book, he must realise that by forcing through the junior doctors contract, he is responsible for so many of our dedicated and brilliant staff, leave. As a retired registered nurse, midwife, health visitor with a diploma in humanistic counselling and a degree in sociology, I know that just 2 years after it was created, the NHS proved to cost more than had been budgeted for. To rectify this ever increasing problem, politicians decided in 1974 that they would organise the way it was run and as a result, the service has run into trouble ever since. Everyone needs to read this book. It highlights that we, the taxpayers, should be paying more tax to keep this brilliant service going, that we need to stop the interference of politicians who change every few years and most are ignorant about health, ill or well, and get rid of expensive business managers. Long may the Rachel Clarkes of this world continue to serve in the NHS.

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A persuasive and compelling account of medical practice in the UK.

This is a good book if you’re interested in the politics of the NHS. It was a little depressing for me and not exactly what I was after, but I appreciate that the author is bringing to light some important topics and she’s telling the often unspoken perspective of a doctor battling through the politics of the NHS.

For anyone interested in the way the NHS works (or fails) from the perspective of its frontline junior doctors, this book is a must.We are all familiar with the government's spin,hypocrisy, turning a blind eye and willingness to blame anyone else but themselves for the parlous state of the NHS at present. What I hadn't realised until now is the degree to which NHS workers are gagged and demonised if, in extremis, they dare to speak out about unsafe practices, or for example,the inability to prevent avoidable patient deaths, due to unsafe staffing numbers. And 'speaking out' can mean to the hierarchy of the NHS, including their Health Trust.What has come over to me from Rachel Clarke's book is this.Frontline workers are people with massive hearts. They want the NHS to work. Some of them have trained for years, and are passionate about their work and making a difference. It could be argued that these people are the only ones who understand what needs to change in order for them to be able to do their job properly.These highly trained people are often not allowed to carry out the job for which they were trained. They want to do a good job but insufficient staff numbers, plus a hierarchy (Board, Trust, Government) who seem hell bent on not facing up to the reality that every hospital worker knows in their gut is what is going on, means that these workers will go home feeling exhausted, demoralised,unsupported, upset at having to cut corners. And it doesn't take a genius to work out that with so much stress, and no control over lessening it, workers motivation, mental health, willingness to 'go the extra mile', self esteem and pride in their work, is all going to suffer.But these very people are the ones who hold the answers, so why are they not listened to? They deserve to be able to do the job for which they are trained, well.The denial, obfuscation, blame, spin and outright lies that the government have poured onto the the very workers who really do not have a voice is despicable.Rachel's account of the junior doctors strike, and the Mid-Staffs shocking events have now been clarified clearly for me and I hang my head in shame that I didn't previously try to dig a bit deeper in my understanding of these events from the workers point of view, as opposed to hearing stuff on the news which didn't really seem to make sense to me.Thank God for people like Rachel Clarke. Due to her medical frontline work, coupled with her reporting background,she was in the ideal place to write this book - to ask the questions when work nearly broke her, and be prepared not to be fobbed off with complacency or blame.She was granted a short private interview with Jeremy Hunt and his hypocrisy is astounding.NHS workers, and people like Rachel should be cherished and treated properly by the system. It's in all our interest because I know what type of health professional I would like treating me when required .