Well I’m a little bit speechless. What an absolutely brilliant book from the beginning, right up to the end!

Fascinating
Insightful

This was a fascinating insight into being a doctor in a prison.
It was very informative but also so heartbreaking at times.
A well written memoir

I usually love books like this. However this one failed to grip me. It just felt a bit same to what I had read previously
I have not reviewed online as some people will really enjoy this book

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Uk, Transworld Publishing, Bantam Press for the arc of this book by Dr Shahed Yousaf.

5 stars- such an interesting true read from a prison doctor who worked behind bars treating prisoners and has seen it all! Such a factual book to read if you liked the secret barrister or this is going to hurt you'll love this.

An interesting insight into the life of a prison doctor, in comparison to the "prison doctor" - Amanda I felt the stories although interesting were a little dry.
Overall a good read for me and it is always fascinating to hear what happens behind the scenes of prison life

Absolutely loved this book!

The writing style was really good and I look forward to reading any other books from this author in the future :)

What an interesting read!

I was automatically interested in reading this because of the offender healthcare focus. It definitely didn’t disappoint. I can’t fault the book at all. Such and accurate account of what offender healthcare is like.

Definitely a few shocks, but not a gory as I was expecting.

Great insightful read.

A thought provoking insight into what goes on behind prison walls. Equal parts humble, funny and real, this is a compelling must read that is beautifully written!

I have read so many true life/true crime novels set in prisons all over the world, written by prisoners, ex prisoners, staff and governors but this has got to be the most honest one I have read to date!

Whilst shocking and hard to read at times it's also just as humorous and had me laughing out loud with some of the stories Dr Y tells of his patients.

Dr Shahed Yousaf (Dr Y) portrays life behind the security doors of a UK prison. Just what goes on in this institutionalised life and how harrowing it can be at times, not just for the prisoners!

A compassionate, warm and empathetic Dr working in one hell of a serious situation at times, this book never got tiring and was never predictable.

This was a really interesting insight of what goes on in the daily life of a prison GP and just how poor the health care system is within these prisons, you can feel the anger and frustration Dr Y was feeling radiating off the pages.

I would have personally have loved to hear more about the patients but that doesn't affect the enjoyment (can I say I enjoyed it? 🙄) of the book.

I loved the fact that everything was explained in plain English, no pretentious 'Dr speak'.
Highly recommend.

Huge thanks to netgalley and Random House UK/Transworld for the ARC.

Amazing memoir of a prison doctor, I read this while I was on jury service and oh my it kept be both entertained and laughing out loud whilst all the waiting around. A great heartfelt book which I enjoyed immensely I will be recommending this to all friends and family

I really enjoyed this, this is written well and exactly as I had hoped from the book.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

What an excellent insight into the world of prison doctors and how difficult their world can be. I found myself admiring the author for his absolute kindness and dedication to the job.

A fascinating read.

Very interesting read. I enjoyed the personal stories in there too. I really liked their writing, and would love to read more of their work

Not the first insight into the real life of a prison doctor I have read, which didn’t reinvent the wheel, but it was enjoyable and insightful non the less.

Some of the stories told were 'original'; others I had heard from different accounts.

Well written, easy to read and highly recommended to those who enjoy crime, criminology or medical accounts.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers
Random House UK, Transworld Publishers & Bantam Press for an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fantastic non fiction book about the realities of being a prison doctor.

I've read plenty of books like this previously and while this book didn't necessarily stand out it was still a very enjoyable and insightful read.

The good thing about books about prisons, is it doesn't matter how many you read, they will always contain different insights, experiences and anecdotes.

This book was well written, easy to read and contained lots of interesting stories and information about what it's really like to work in a prison.

If you are interested in true crime or enjoy medical memoirs, then I think you will find this book very interesting and insightful. Highly recommend.

This was a fascinating and thought-provoking look inside the working life of a prison doctor. I loved the variety of people and cases the author talked about. It also made you think about the people who work in the prison system, and how difficult that can be. The author wrote with honesty, inserting his personality into the book, so it made you feel you were talking to a friend.

Very insightful and interesting! Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher, for a chance to read and review this book.

Immediately after ComServe, when I was unemployed for - gasp! - a whole week, I considered applying to a job as a prison GP. (I did not, because a locum opportunity came along that morphed into something semi-permanent, and other opportunities fell by the wayside for a while.)

I think about that job, sometimes. I wonder how I would have handled it. I wonder what the relationship among the healthcare workers and the guards was like. I wonder if I might’ve felt like I was making a difference, rather than running a production line. I suspect that, given my family’s personal experience with loss due to violent crime, it would have been challenging work. 

Shahed Yousaf, author of Stitched Up, chronicles his experience as a prison general practitioner in the UK. Medical training in the UK, and indeed much of medical practice there, is similar to the South African system, and Yousaf’s narrative style is easy to grasp for me, as a South African. 

I’ve read some about prison systems (review of Incarceration Nations), and prisons in the UK, as described by Yousaf, seem scarcely better than those in developing countries. The author is insightful and introspective, and the reader has no choice but to challenge their own views on crime and punishment (the concept, not the book).

Dr Y (or “dry, like [his] humour”) is an affable character, cognisant of his patients’ humanity, and ever aware of how the language he uses may affect either patients, their care, or both. He shares the challenges of being a GP in the NHS, and how those are further compounded in offender medicine (which is an actual field). South African prisons probably have even fewer resources, but look, this is not the poverty olympics. 

A withdrawn and grieving young man when he begins his career, Yousaf grows into a confident, respected doctor - not at the expense of his patients, but certainly in part because of them. He is ever-honest about the impact of his work on himself, and his colleagues. While some anecdotes are humerous, he is careful to relay them with respect for the humans afflicted, and protects the privacy of his patients.  

The world is vast, and Yousaf’s book is one example of the many directions a career might go, if given half a chance.

I throughly enjoy medical memoirs and books about doctors such as “this is going to hurt” and “admission” and anything to do with medical history and so ‘Stitched Up” by Dr. Yousaf was right up my street.

The book is incredibly insightful into the life of a prison GP and details the terrible state the health system is in, but I think in comparison to other books it could be fleshed out slightly more. Nevertheless a good read.

3.5 rounded up to 4

Excellent. A totally fascinating book.

I've read quite a few medical memoirs; I'm familiar with most different departments etc. This book is different as the doctor isn't working in a hospital environment-instead he looks after the health of prison inmates. Dr Shahed Yousaf's account is an excellent read. Eye-opening, gritty, shocking, gruesome.

I just had to read on, until well into the small hours; I just had to know what it’s like. It seems nothing like I'd already seen on TV. Conditions are not just grim for the inmates-but even for this doctor. No clean and tidy consulting room for him in here!

A totally fascinating book.

An eyeopening, insightful account from a prison doctor. There's parts that are shocking, and shows just how tough the life of a prison doctor is.

It's an absolutely fantastic story that will be enjoyed by everyone who likes the doctor books etc. Nothing I say can really give it justice to how much this needs to be read.