On 3rd August 2004, after six years of medical training, 24-year-old Adam Kay finally set foot in the hospital where he was to begin his career as a junior doctor for the U.K.’s National Health Service. For six years he worked on the wards as an obstetrician, and from day one kept a compelling, insightful, shocking, and often amusing diary in which to detail the highs and lows of such an intensely demanding job in an organisation so vast, vital, and fragile. This entry is just one of many.

The Diary Entry

Monday, 12 February 2007

Prescribing a morning-after pill in A&E. The patient says, “I slept with three guys last night. Will one pill be enough?”

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Further Reading

In 2017, Adam’s diary entries were published in the book, This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, which went on to become one of the bestselling non-fiction titles of all time. Five years later, it shape-shifted to become a seven-part television series that was broadcast on BBC One in the UK and AMC in the US. In 2020, as the pandemic took hold, Kay edited Dear NHS: 100 Stories To Say Thank You, a collection of inspirational stories about the NHS which raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for NHS Charities Together and The Lullaby Trust.

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Diary entry reprinted by kind permission of Adam Kay.