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The Locked Ward by Dennis O'Donnell (view source)
Revision as of 12:16, 14 April 2018
, 12:16, 14 April 2018no edit summary
{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=The Locked Ward
|sort=Locked Ward
|author=Dennis O'Donnell
|reviewer=Zoe PageMorris
|genre=Politics and Society
|rating=4
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-0224093606
|pages=352
|publisher=Jonathan Cape
|date=January 2012
|summary=A former English teacher spends 7 years on a psyc ward - albeit as a member of staff, not a patient. Interesting and easy to read.
|cover=0099554356
|aznuk=0099554356
|aznus=0224093606
}}
It’s funny because if some of the things that occur in the book were the result of a few too many drinks, you’d never think twice, but because of the nature of the patients and what’s driving them to behave in that way, I was a bit wary at times. I needn’t have worried. It’s amusing in the way kooky anecdotes can be but it’s never specifically cruel or exploitive.
The word ''Memoirs'' in the subtitle initially made me think these tales were set further in the past, and I’m not the only one – many colleagues seeing me reading it made comments about the era of asylums and so on. In fact, it spans a 7 year period starting in 2000 so is as recent as can be. It’s an account of one ward in one hospital so how true common the stories are (and how representative of similar wards) is up for debate. As you’d expect, names have been changed, all identifying details altered to protect the patients concerned. I imagine there is some aspect of fictionalization to it but I also imagine that the stories are based on truth and that the overall vein is an honest one.
I really enjoyed the book as it was easy to read but full of little nuggets of information that answered questions I’d pondered before, things I’d always wondered about. If I’m being picky, I’ll say I wasn’t a massive fan of the Scottish-ness of the writing, but I don’t tend to like thick dialect in books anyway, regardless of origin. Otherwise, though, it’s an interesting read that really does give the inside story on a very unusual place. Recommended.
[[The Doctor Will See You Now by Max Pemberton]] gives a similar look at NHS inpatient care, focussing on geriatric medicine rather than psychiatric care.
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