The case histories and incidents in this book are both interesting and disturbing, unfortunately I found the introspective pieces to be rather “wordy” and over long. I thought that the book would have been better served if there were fewer of these and more of the day to day life of the paramedic. Nevertheless it was an absorbing book and unusual in its content.

This book is the story of Jake who is a paramedic. It consists of memoirs of many cases that he has been involved in. As a fellow healthcare professional, we has been involved in emergency care, I was aware of the pressures on the ambulance service and hospitals, caused by time wasters and was so glad that this is talked about in the book to make the general public aware.
This book highlights the commitment and compassion of healthcare workers. Paramedics deal with life at the very beginning and sadly at the end of someone’s life.

I loved this book but I did feel that the writing was slightly disjointed at times.
This was a fast paced insight into the world of a paramedic.

An interesting read about the working life of a paramedic. Well written and informative.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Brilliant book. I found this a relatable, enjoyable and interesting read. It’s fairly quick to read and each chapter is a different patient/scenario so it’s great to dip in and out of. Although as you would expect it deals with the misuse of services, unlike many other books it’s doesn’t heavily blame and shame governments and funds

I found the structure of this book interesting. As I settled into the story I gained a sense of the rhythm of the life of a paramedic from it. The going straight from one job to another; the focused urgency and immediacy versus long, frustrating waits for patients, for beds; for people to be persuaded to go to the hospital; and then, the wait for an ambulance and crew to become free. We, as readers, rarely get to hear what becomes of his patients. because this is what paramedics have to cope with too. It takes a while for readers to settle into this. I found myself waiting for updates and then, once I realised this wasn't going to happen, I gained yet another insight into a profession I thought I knew a lot about (I am a former HCP).

There's pragmatic compassion here and good writing too. It's a visceral book that takes the reader on a sensory journey through all the messiness of a malfunctioning body and the human condition itself.

Very good and very easy to read.

I tend to read a lot of medical memoirs; I find them very interesting, and this book certainly was a very good read. A memoir of a paramedic. It starts with a gritty scene. This must be one if the worst things- and he takes on this sort of thing on a daily basis.

I have read another memoir a few years ago centred on the ambulance service-and this new one still had more material I hadn't heard of before; wasn't repetitive. Although, I suppose the nature of their job is that they are faced with anything and everything all the time-no two days will be the same.

It's so fascinating to me to take a look into others' lives. We follow Jake Jones right from when he's training on the job. The book gives you some idea about the dramas they have to face every day. Some of the things they see. The conditions they see some living in. The worst kind of emrgencies. Then over-panicky patients-where it's not really an emergency at all.

I enjoyed this book and liked the writing style-I liked the punchy dialogue inserts during the varioius emergenices. Great book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book details on Jake, a paramedics experience in his field of work from different cases and accidents, outlining scary truths and shocking conclusions. I was shocked to read of the cases where the NHS system was abused by others and felt my heartache for the paramedics not just in the book but in general after reading some of the cases. These people have so much to face, day in and day out with their job, this memoir is only a snippet of what goes on and I'm grateful to have been given the opportunity to read it.

The only problems I found in the book was that some of the stories and writing felt disjointed which took away from the narrative it was trying to tell.

ARC received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book made me incredibly angry. Not at Jake but at the disgusting people who abuse the system. I know it happens. I know people worse off suffer because of it. I think it was seeing it in black and white that really brought it home. It’s not even the most sever cases that got to me it’s the ones who need help through no fault of their own and the delay in help won’t be detrimental but could and should have been avoided.

That said I loved this book of glimpses of life as a paramedic and a human. The scary, the frustrating and the life affirming moments. I cried, I got angry and I hoped. I hope that the areas Jake has identified as needing improvement, improve and I hope that if I ever encounter the emergency services it’s someone like this. Thank you for all that you do.

Such a fascinating insight into the work of the Ambulance Service.

I started this book and found the first few chapters a bit confusing as they kept jumping around in time with little demarcation, I think the flow of this book would benefit from being told chronologically.

Having left his office job we find out how and why Jake became a paramedic, what it felt like as a rookie and then later on working independently in the ambulance car. There were some interesting stories here about both the mundane call outs and the more challenging, told with reflection and professionalism.

It could have benefitted with some more details about the changes that paramedic practices have experienced over the years, but overall a good read.

Paramedic Jake Jones tells us about his ‘frustrating, rewarding, exhausting job’.
But - with an increasing proliferation of ambulance reality TV documentaries - this account is a cut above many as Jones is so honest about the difficulties and dilemmas he faces and the ambiguity of his responses.
I was really struck by one account in which he is assaulted by an aggressive patient and he feels let down by the police who tell him it’s not worth reporting and the A&E staff who question whether the patient should have been brought in by him. It says it all about what an isolating job it can be, but it’s juxtaposed by other stories of real heroics where his judgement saves a patient.
He made me laugh too with one story of the over-eager and excited bystanders wanting to help and use their knowledge gleaned from ambulance TV shows, and how he deals with them.
He’s also a good writer and has a nice turn of phrase which means that his accounts are always vivid and feel real.
I really got a sense of what it’s like to be a paramedic and it kept me turning the pages.
A fast-paced warts-and-all insight into the paramedic’s world and his brain as he goes about his work: recommended.

Fast paced and impulsive reading.
This book is a memoir of a paramedic in the UK.
Harrowing and humorous tales that tell the reality of what it is like to work in this profession.
Although there is a influx of books of this kind at the moment, this book is one of the best.
Very well written with intelligent observations of what this job entails and the toil it takes on the individual.
What resonants throughout the book is the commitment to help people that keeps healthcare workers going throughout their working life.
Thanks you to the author, NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read in return for review.
This book is a recommended read to all.

Thanks to netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Interesting insight into the job of a paramedic.
However, felt a bit disjointed due to how the chapters where set out and kept jumping back and forward between the patients and the authors views.

Can You Hear Me? is a new medical memoir written under the pseudonym Jake Jones of the experiences of a UK NHS ambulance paramedic.  Each of the twenty-seven chapters covers a memorable encounter Jake experienced, sometimes as part of an ambulance team but also as a first response driver where sometimes he's facing difficult decisions and conflicting priorities solo.  

There's quite a mix of stories in this, some were slightly strange; someone refusing to move piles of papers to allow the ambulance crew access. Some sounded almost unbelievable, a man who had a heart attack while driving in front of a police car and some which were just heartbreaking. Obviously, because a paramedic is not always involved in a patient's complete journey, just do whatever they can and getting them to hospital so several of these encounters are left with cliffhangers and just Jake's best guess of what may have happened. 

When I started reading this I expected there to be several chapters on the annoyance of non-urgent 999 calls however I was struck by how non-judgmental and patient Jake and his colleagues seemed to remain even when I was getting slightly annoyed reading it.

I found it this to be really enjoyable, there's not too much medical jargon or acronyms to get your head around and each chapter is short enough to keep you wanting the next one; will be recommending to friends/family who also enjoy books on the same theme.

I have long been fascinated by books with a strong medical theme and I knew that I would find this book interesting. And it was.

There were so many parts that I had no idea about although I suspected it e.g. people ringing in about non lifethreatening events in the hope of jumping the queue etc but I didn't realise the extent to which paramedics got called out to people in a mental health crisis.

Funnily enough, I did a similar thing to the author and went from selling insurance for a living to becoming a nurse. I think the best part of the book, for me personally, was the introspection of the author as to how he came to begin his career, what is part and parcel of the culture of being a paramedic and even his feeling of having imposter syndrome (because I have felt the same way). This book has actually really helped me get things in perspective when it comes to my own career, so thank you, Jake Jones, so much.

I liked this book. Was the format a bit confusing at times? Yes. But it gave me a good insight into what made someone choose this career and what made them stay, despite the immense pressures of the job.

4.5 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books.

I enjoy reading memoirs & ones from people with jobs like this particularly appeal.
I did enjoy reading Jake's stories yet I felt it was bland - he isn't a natural wordsmith & the stories jumped around rather illogically. The book would have benefitted from some editting or ghost writing to turn the bland & mundane into something special.
Some sections really touch a nerve - the frail Reggie who waited 3 hours after a fall for help because of a young women reported as "unconscious" who had just had a falling out with her family

Overall an ok read but could be so much more

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Allopinions are my own

A big thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read an eARC of this memoir. I have become a bit obsessed with memoirs, especially medical memoirs, after reading This is Going to Hurt, and so jumped at the change to read this one!

It did not disappoint. It was such an interesting read throughout and it never really let up on the action and drama. Although you think you know what paramedic's deal with you never truly can know and I think this was a real eye-opening look. I enjoyed the individual accounts of things that had happened on the job and the real range of jobs that he had been out to see, whilst also balancing that with the emotional and physical impact that it had on his own health and that of his colleagues.

I wouldn't say that this gave me the same emotions as This is Going to Hurt; and I didn't feel quite as connected to any of the people that were described in this story. I think my only issue was that at times it wasn't clear where we were; he seemed to jump suddenly from an encounter to current day and back again, and I don't know if it was partly due to the ebook formatting which confused the story or if it was just how it was written, but it did throw me off at times.

Other than that I loved this book and found it to be a really interesting and enlightening read.

3.5 stars. This was an enjoyable book that gave you a good insight into behind the scenes of the life of a paramedic. It was very interesting to read

I love watching medical tv shows, so I was super interested in reading this and getting more of an insight into the lives of paramedics. As well as having gripping stories, that leave you wanting to know more (but also not getting more information or even knowing the outcome of patients, which I imagine e to be similar to what paramedics are left wondering after a job) the author I loved used anecdotes about how it feels to work in the field and the emotions being experienced with different jobs. A great read, and important for those people who treat emergency services as a number to call when they are unsure about how many paracetamols to take.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. I really enjoyed it, it gives a realistic view of the NHS today.

I am a paramedic myself and was interested in seeing what this book had to offer, maybe I am too close to the subject matter but this book left me wishing I had not bothered