Your Life In My Hands: A Junior Doctor's Story

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Clarke may well be up for another award for this disturbing insider account of the NHS during the pandemic . . . she recognises the power of individual stories -- Vanessa Berridge ― Express

To be a medical novice who makes decisions which - if you get them wrong - might forever alter, or end, a person’s life?

Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why may those who know Him never see His days?

My personal conviction is that the primary goal of any healthcare system should be to serve its people and ensure their health and wellbeing. The vision of the NHS is awe-inspiring, yet, sadly, it has been increasingly besieged by policies that contradict its founding principles. Most Interesting Part of the Book My times are in Your hands; Rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from those who pursue and persecute me. In the long run, without proper measures to ease the burden on overstretched doctors, patient care will be severely compromised. Not only that, doctors and nurses can succumb to mental health problems precipitated by stress, anxiety and guilt at not being able to deliver the quality of care that their patients deserve. While it is no fault of the individual, it can seem to some doctors like a personal failure. My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.The declining health of our loved ones is a predicament that none of us want to face. Knowing that there will always be a system in place to take care of them is a comforting assurance. Therefore, continuing to uphold the values of the NHS while not subjecting its workers to further stress will provide the crucial anchorage for a better future. Who would I recommend this book to? Nearing the end of the book, the reversal of roles is again brought to the fore as Clarke’s father was diagnosed with aggressive cancer, and she faced the anguish of being the loved one of a patient who might slip away at any moment. Yet, even in the midst of despondence, Clarke expresses heartfelt gratitude towards her country’s health service for its collective decision to “provide healthcare without charge to those in need”. Her pride in being an NHS doctor shines through the impending tragedy and general miasma of uncertainty that hangs over its future. Breathtaking is a scorching corrective to any suggestion that the pandemic is a hoax and that empty hospital corridors imply deserted intensive care units . . . Written at pace as "a kind of nocturnal therapy" on sleepless nights, Clarke's book has all the rawness of someone still working in the eye of the storm ― Mirror As Clarke shares some of the traumatic experiences she went through in understaffed hospital shifts, I am moved by her longing to do the best for her patients—a worthy desire which is constantly being thwarted by the long hours and an impossible workload. She describes herself running between wards, frenzied and sleep-deprived, trying to stay sane while not letting her mounting frustration get in the way of treating patients with kindness and respect.

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. The course of my life is in Your power; deliver me from the power of my enemies and from my persecutors.The goodwill and kindness without which the NHS will not survive are being inexorably squeezed out by underfunding, understaffing and the ever more unrealistic demands placed upon a floundering workforce. I hope sincerely that the Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt has read Rachel Clarke’s passionate memoir but I doubt it. I am passionate about our NHS and the heroes that work in the NHS. I cannot praise Your Life in My Hands high enough. It you care about the future of the NHS then this is a book you must read. To Rachel Clarke I say thank you for writing this important book that in years to come may yet be a book every junior doctor will want to read. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

This book has also allowed me to see that medicine is essentially inseparable from politics. No matter how much doctors wish to be independent, they still fall under the subjugation of government bureaucracy and their choices are still influenced by political imperatives.My times are in thy hand: Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.