While I am personally not inclined to take any sides in such conflicts without a more complete understanding of the situation, I am nevertheless appalled by the Health Secretary’s avoidance of frank conversations with the people whom his policies will most directly affect. The unjust connotations that made the lapse in patient safety seem like the fault of junior doctors were also deeply disturbing. Clarke is a superb storyteller as well as a clear-eyed polemicist . . . she writes with such compassion and humanity that you feel you are in the room . . . Clarke is certainly on the side of the angels and she has produced much more than a snapshot. Breathtaking is a beautiful, blistering account of a key moment in our history. If I were Boris Johnson, I wouldn't want to read it -- Christina Patterson ― Sunday Times There have been many books written by young doctors… but none comes close to Clarke’s’ - Sunday Times

This memoir of the first wave of Covid will, I predict, be read a century from now as one of the best eyewitness accounts of what happened in the nation's wards in 2020. But it is no less important that it be read now, as a riveting, heart-wrenching testimony from the front line . . . Clarke writes with grace and empathy about her patients and colleagues . . . A must-read -- Matthew D'Ancona, Tortoise Media Conjunctive waw, Preposition-m | Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine plural construct | first person common singular

Most Interesting Part of the Book

To toughen up the hard way, through repeated exposure to life-and-death situations, until you are finally a match for them? I love how Clarke reminisces the years of her childhood and youth, when her father would bring the entire family to visit his patients at the cottage hospital where he worked. Such an act of compassion filled the wards with a palpable warmth and was especially uplifting for patients who had been forsaken by their families. Her father’s temperament and compassion towards his patients became a guiding beacon for Clarke’s own journey into medicine. I truly admire Clarke’s patient-centred approach to her work and like her, I aspire to be a doctor who can make patients feel loved and understood. The very fact that doctors would abandon their patients to go on strike was enough to highlight their desperation and fierce opposition towards the proposed contractual changes. Medical professionals place patients at the heart of their work and leaving them vulnerable to deterioration in their absence is a huge risk that no doctor would willingly take. Yet, driven by the cardinal threat to their capacity to continue providing the best care to their patients, junior doctors went on strike for the first time in NHS history. To me, this is sufficient to evince the enormity of the political decisions that were being made at the time. It shows that doctors felt that the long-term costs of not voicing their concerns would far outweigh the harm that their momentary absence would cause.

My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.

Summary

In this heartfelt, deeply personal account of life as a junior doctor in today’s health service, former television journalist turned doctor, Rachel Clarke, captures the extraordinary realities of ordinary life on the NHS front line. From the historic junior doctor strikes of 2016 to the ‘humanitarian crisis’ declared by the Red Cross, the overstretched health service is on the precipice, calling for junior doctors to draw on extraordinary reserves of what compelled them into medicine in the first place - and the value the NHS can least afford to lose - kindness. My times are in Thy hand; Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. My times are in thy hand: Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. Powerful, uplifting and even reassuring . . . Clarke's tone is more intimate, much of the book written at night when she couldn't sleep for fear, fury and frustration - the last two she attributes largely to the inadequacies and lies of politicians. Rage lurks beneath many paragraphs as she lambasts the delays in decisions, and the "number theatre" of statistics. You get the sense of someone trying to remain calm and reasoned, often on the verge of being overcome . . . superb -- Madeleine Bunting ― Guardian Thank you to Rebecca Fincham (Bigmouth Presents Book events) and also Metro Publishing (John Blake Books) for the advanced review copy of Your Life in My Hands.

I would still recommend it's read by prospective UK doctors (it's very UK centric) rather than someone in the US or European systems.Find this title with Libby, the award-winning and much-loved app for local libraries, by OverDrive.

David said furthermore, As the LORD liveth, the LORD shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and perish. Yet, when she finally emerged as a junior doctor at over thirty years of age and entered into the profession she had pursued with fervour, she became disillusioned by the punishing workload and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s unjust accusations towards junior doctors for failing to deliver an exemplary standard of care and a seven-day NHS. Despite being at the lowest position in the hierarchy of the medical profession, Clarke, like many other junior doctors, felt the need to speak up and voice her concerns. This led her to adopt a leading role in the activism against the proposed junior doctors’ contract. Through it all, she stayed true to the prioritisation of patient care and expressed her deep attachment and loyalty to the NHS, which threatened to be upended by unreasonable governmental policies. Tinted with a mixture of worry and optimism, this personal account promulgates a sense of hope for an increasingly battered and underfunded health service. Reflections The Distinctiveness of Britain’s Health System From the very heart of the NHS comes this brilliant insight into the continuing crisis in the health service. Rachel Clarke writes as the accomplished journalist she once was and as the leading junior doctor she now is - writing with humanity and compassion that at times reduced me to tears.’ - Jon Snow, Channel 4 News My times are in your hand: deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from them that persecute me. How does it feel to be spat out of medical school into a world of pain, loss and trauma that you feel wholly ill-equipped to handle?While the political aspects of the junior doctor dispute are riveting and enlightening, the parts of the book that left the deepest impression on me are those in which Clarke recounts the human experiences that have continuously reinforced her faith in medicine and its healing power. In the Sunday Times best-selling Your Life in My Hands, Rachel depicts life as a junior doctor on the NHS frontline. A heartfelt, deeply personal memoir that is both a powerful polemic on the degradation of Britain's most vital public institution and a love letter of hope and optimism to that same health service. 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. These are the extraordinary realities of the NHS front line. From the historic junior doctor strikes to the 'humanitarian crisis' declared by the Red Cross, the overstretched health service is on the precipice.