Book Review: Intensive Care by Gavin Francis

 Intensive care is an account of the pandemic from a village GP, starting from the mild buzz of conversations about a new virus here and there to the intense peak of the pandemic symbolized through full PPE and dragging lockdowns. This account highlights views and topics unseen and hidden to the average British civilian but a blaring, obvious issue to the average GP, providing critical insight and a new way to look at the British healthcare system and society as a whole.


Thoughts and feelings

As my first healthcare book, this was an excellent read that got me thinking about the pandemic from a new perspective. 

By far the most interesting point addressed by the book was the impact of the pandemic on an ignored group in society: the homeless. The logical yet simple explanations provided by the author highlighted how, in a time where we were expected to stay home, the homeless had no home to go to and therefore were especially vunerable to the virus. With these individuals having no means to access forms of personal protection, shelter (especially those who couch surfed having no more places to stay due to many closing of their homes from the outside world) yet still being targeted by crime such as drug dealers, it makes you wonder what it must have been like, to face a world of isolation without a home.

The most obvious point addressed was the resources at healthcare professional's disposal. The book highlighted the lack of quality PPE in a light hearted manner, joking about looking eBay for hazmat suits. However it is made evident that this is not a meer joke but a cold reality as many healthcare professionals faced difficulty in protecting themselves with government provided PPE, endangering themselves as well as those they were treating. 

Another interesting point was how the pandemic affects rural areas. With these areas being isolated, they are perfect for being protected from viruses coming from large city areas, however due to their small isolated nature, introducing viruses to such areas can be catastrophic. If there aren't hospitals near by, what can a GP do if they have a patient in need of urgent care under Covid restrictions? Most definitely food for thought.

Would you recommend "Intensive Care"?

If conversations around Covid is something you can mentally and emotionally handle it is definitely a book to put on your reading lists. There's a lot of subtle touches by the author that make the topic interesting with every page turn. It definitely helped me personally in understanding where some of my own issues caused by the pandemic actually came from as well as re-evaluating the narrative pushed about the pandemic and whether it was missing some topics brought up in the book (not in a conspiracy theory way, but in a way certain problems remain invisible in todays society way!).

Check the book out here (not affiliated): https://solihull.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/FULL/WPAC/BIBENQ/4294578/4078741,1

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Detroit Become Human: How one game demonstrates aspects of social influence

Image
 This article relates to a game that I am very fond of which is Detroit Become Human! This is a game about Ai gaining their own sense of consciousness resulting in many "androids" (human like robots) disobeying their human owners. The three playable characters are Kara, Connor and Markus who all demonstrate different aspects of social influence, as explained below. Obedience All android characters initially obey who they believe to be in authority: their human owners. There is a shift from obedience to disobedience as the characters face unethical situations where they are expected to do nothing.  Although this is mainly due to the idea of androids being computers and therefore programmed to behave a certain way, we can identify certain ideas: Humans are a legitimate authority as the societal hierarchy is structured so that humans have power over androids. Furthermore they have teh ability to punish by deactivating the androids. All playable characters shift from an ...
Read more

Psychology A Level: The best online resources

For subjects that aren't the main sciences, finding resources can get challenging. However, fear not! I have collated all of the resources I have used over the course in this post so hopefully you can find something that floats your boat. Need to find exam questions to practice with? Again, fear not as I have included some notes on how to find them! Just scroll down to find out more or click here to skip ahead. 1. Psychology A Level  This one has been an absolute crutch for me and I wish I knew about it sooner. This is almost as comprehensive as the textbook and covers all of the topics. The have both AO1 and AO3 and it's free, what more could you need? I mainly used this alongside the textbook to write and update my Quizlet cards as I find that the way it explains the topics cuts out a lot of the textbook "fuzz". 2. Simply psychology  I used this at the start of the course and it was pretty useful for reading into the topics with more depth. There is a lot of detail...
Read more

Computer viruses Vs the Common flu: How are they similar?

Transmission There are many ways malware can infect your device, the most commonly known method is downloading files from untrustworthy sources such websites, removable storage devices and emails. What underlies all of these interactions is that your device taking something into it's system, such as a file, where it can wreak havoc.  This idea of something harmful entering a system can be seen in the transmission of viruses between organisms. There is a point of direct or indirect contact between organisms that allows viruses to hop from one organism to another and cause infection. For example, through contact with infected surfaces, airborne particles or food. In these examples you are unknowingly taking a virus in and introducing it to your body where it can cause harm. In both scenarios, it is not known that a virus has entered the body (or malware has entered the device) until detected. Harm caused by these viruses are similar Computer viruses cause harm by replicating themselv...
Read more