NHS workers praise 'gritty realness' of BBC One's adaptation of Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt, saying it shows racism, trauma and burn-out doctors and nurses face working in a 'broken system'
Doctors and nurses working in the NHS have praised the BBC's adaptation of Adam Kay's 2017 novel This is Going to Hurt, saying it showed the reality of what it's like 'working in a broken system'.
The first episode of the six-part series aired on BBC One on Tuesday with James Bond star Ben Whishaw taking on the role of Adam Kay, an overworked, under-qualified trainee medic who is so exhausted from long shifts he often sleeps in his car. 
Ben Whishaw plays Adam Kay, a former real-life trainee medic, in BBC adaptation of his memoir This is Going to Hurt - after the first episode of the six-part drama aired on BBC One on Tuesday, many healthcare workers said the show offered an accurate portrayal of a 'broken' NHS
NHS workers praised the show, which Kay, now a writer for TV, wrote for its unflinching approach to the British healthcare system; one scene showed actor Ben Whishaw holding an umbilical cord inside a pregnant women's body en route to the labour ward
One scene sees a racist new mum asking for an Asian doctor not to be allowed to touch her baby, despite having successfully delivered it
One doctor said the moment sparked a flashback for him, saying he'd experienced the 'exact same words. F***ing horrific'One labour ward scene showed another nervous trainee doctor helping Kay to deliver a baby by Caesarean section.
When she holds the baby up after a successful delivery, the mother screams a tirade of abuse saying: 'Get her off. I'm not having a p*** delivering my baby'.
On Twitter, those who work or have worked for the NHS agreed the series' first episode laid bare the realities, with some saying it triggered PTSD.@karenstacey82 wrote: 'Really enjoying the gritty realness of #Thisisgoingtohurt Very dark humour and had me in tears, triggering some deep down PTSD from the job we do. A broken person in a broken system.'
@DrKidneyAsh added: 'I was slightly skeptical about #ThisIsGoingToHurt but actually it still hits home the real life workings of a junior doctor - tiredness, racism, workload etc. Yes a tad OTT but I still found it true to real life and certainly situations I have faced.'
@L_Harrup asked: 'Any other medics having PTSD from #thisisgoingtohurt? Definitely think I worked for the same consultant?'
@clarissascortex penned: 'This is lived reality. Adam isn't your aspirational hero just doing his best - he's just an average burnt out NHS doctor of his time.'
@randomsucculent added: 'Love #ThisIsGoingToHurt for showing what working in the NHS is really like on a tv screen. We’ve been living with shows like Grey’s Anatomy for so long I think we forgot that being a healthcare worker isn’t all sex, money and exciting cases.'
@RoopaFarooki said: 'All the junior docs I trained with are so grateful to @amateuradam for saying the truth on what we witness as medics, fearlessly sharing our daily reality #ThisIsGoingToHurt gave us a voice (Tho he got an actual locker in 2005, we now just get a bit of changing room floor)'
Adam Kay himself took to Twitter to thank people for the outpouring of praise for the series, which is based on his 2017 memoir
Kay himself took to Twitter on Wednesday to thank people for the outpouring of praise for the series.
He acknowledged the problems he feels the NHS is still facing, saying: 'I have 6,000 too many messages on here to reply to everyone about #thisisgoingtohurt but thank you with all my heart.
'The next morning, I’m left full of gratitude for two great institutions under threat - whether pernicious or overt - the NHS and the BBC. Long may they thrive.'
Kay's diary about his life as a junior doctor, which was at the top of the bestsellers list since it's release in 2017, is likely to be a huge success again following the six-part series.
It has already won four National Book Awards and has sold more than a million copies. This year, Kay has performed to packed theatres all over the country with a stage show detailing his rollercoaster life working in a hospital.
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS' verdict: Harassed doctor Adam Kay was so tired he fell asleep in a strip club
Rating: 
Sarcasm, in the hands of an expert, cuts like a honed scalpel. The patient doesn’t even feel the wound . . . until the blood begins to trickle.
And harassed doctor Adam Kay (Ben Whishaw) knows how to use it.
It’s fortunate his victims are already on a hospital ward, because some of them will need resuscitation by the time he has sliced them up.
He tells a nervous trainee medic in This Is Going To Hurt (BBC1): ‘Hurry, please — the anaesthetist is retiring next week.’
When a colleague pleads that a patient has to be discharged because they need to free up beds, Dr Adam suggests mildly: ‘We could pull out her drips and push her out of the window.’
The closing shot of the first episode sees Kay slumping into sleep at a strip club as he arrives for the end of a friend’s stag night following a long shift
Gradually we realise he is wielding this lethal weapon in self-defence. He’s overworked, exhausted, under-qualified, terrified and his private life is verging on disintegration. He’s so tired that he’s falling asleep on his feet and in his car.
But sarcasm is contagious. When he tells one patient he can’t stop and talk because he needs to see somebody else, she retorts: ‘Hopefully a hairdresser.’
Whishaw is always brilliant when playing passive-aggressive, nervous men at breaking point, and this role — adapted from Kay’s real-life medical memoir by the author himself — is perfect for him.
He’s at the centre of every scene, whether he’s soaking up humiliation from a supercilious consultant (Alex Jennings) or lashing out at student doctor Shruti (Ambika Mod).
When the stress gets too intense, he turns to the camera, as if viewers are the only ones who could possibly understand.
Covered in blood after a gory Caesarean, he paints a desperate picture of life in the NHS: ‘You’re generally sailing the ship alone.
'A ship that’s massive and on fire and nobody’s had the time to teach you how to sail. It’s literally life and death.’
Some of the surgery scenes are tough to watch. We’re all used to screaming mothers in childbirth, thanks to Call The Midwife, but Nurse Trixie doesn’t usually finish a delivery ankle-deep in blood.
This six-part drama never slows. The set-piece opening hits like an avalanche. Dr Adam discovers a woman in the hospital car park, suffering a breech birth.
His short-cut to the maternity ward means pushing her into an open service lift that doesn’t stop, so that they have to tumble out when they reach their floor.
It’s a unique moment, unlike anything in any hospital drama you’ve seen before. The closing shot, of our hero slumping into sleep at a strip club as he arrives for the end of a friend’s stag night, is just as extraordinary.
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