‘WE NEED TO RECRUIT AND WE NEED TO RETAIN — BECAUSE THERE’S NO POINT RUNNING THE BATH IF THE PLUG ISN’T IN’
The last time Adam Kay spoke to The Big Issue was towards the end of 2019. He explained, with quietly restrained fury, how every day was like Christmas in the NHS – and not in a good way, not as something to celebrate, but rather because on a daily basis there were barely enough staff to cope. The NHS, the doctors, nurses and all other workers within it, he told us, were running on empty.
Little did any of us know that we were on the verge of a global pandemic. Two years in, the adaptation of Kay’s bestselling 2017 memoir This is Going to Hurt – with Ben Whishaw in brilliant form as the fictionalised Adam, an exhausted, stressed, overworked and under-supported acting registrar – arrives on BBC One at a worrying time for the NHS. Waiting times for operations are longer than ever, staff shortages are at record levels and many see an existential threat to the NHS on the horizon. So we arranged another consultation with Kay.
THE BIG ISSUE: When we last spoke, we were talking about the NHS being in dire straits. And that was before the pandemic.
ADAM KAY: Everyone was running on empty and it turned out those were the good old days.
