Being back in the NHS 'reminded me of Afghanistan' - By Michael Mosley

The first patient that I ever got my hands on in A&E, when I was a medical student 30-plus years ago, was an alcoholic who had fallen over and badly cut his skull.

I was asked to stitch him up. But I was really nervous and when I'd finished and tried to take my hand away... I realised I'd stitched my glove to the top of his head!

I'm back in an NHS hospital, working in the busy casualty department at King's College Hospital in London as part of Celebrities on the NHS Frontline, marking the health service's 70th birthday.

I was there with former MP Ann Widdecombe, Paralympian Jonnie Peacock - who underwent a below-the-knee amputation as a result of meningitis aged five - and reporter Stacey Dooley who had a heart condition when she was young.

It feels far busier in A&E than when I was training and there are more senior staff, keeping an eye on proceedings.

Given my training, I was thrown in at the deep end, helping the junior doctors out in resus - where the most seriously ill patients go.

The good news for doctors training now is that, ever since the European Working Time directive was introduced in 2004, it has been illegal to make juniors work the sort of 100-hour weeks that were standard in the 1980s

The bad news is that when they are on the job, most junior doctors are working harder than ever. - More, BBC

Being back in the NHS 'reminded me of Afghanistan' - BBC News

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