I knew as soon as I saw On Call I needed to pick it up. I love Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt and Ineke Meredith’s On Call is New Zealand’s version. I also can’t help but be interested in the memoirs of medical professionals because of how much strength, love and care they have for their jobs and patients. One thing I wasn’t prepared for though was the deep-seated anger I felt as a result of this novel.

As with any medical memoir, On Call is gritty and will make you cringe. It will also make you laugh, cry, smile in happiness, bawl your heart out in sadness, and grit your teeth at that anger that begins to rise. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you it’s not anger toward the medical staff, rather anger toward companies and governments who don’t see the significance and detrimental impact understaffing hospitals and medical centres has on those forced to work overtime, throughout the night, and across multiple centres.

On Call is also a story of monumental inspiration. Ineke Meredith is from Samoa, the eldest of many children, and a key figure in her mother’s life. With being the eldest and a pillar for her mother comes struggles though, and uncertainty about what you can do for your future. While I can’t speak on it as an experience, I know that the family structures for Pasifika families put a lot of pressure on the eldest children, especially girls. Ineke’s courage, strength, and hard work in school set her up for a scholarship to study medicine in New Zealand, a path that wouldn’t be easy to choose or come back from for many people. Ineke Meredith is a wonderful role model for not only Pasifika girls but girls all over the world.

This book highlights two major parts of the medical profession that I’m sure are applicable internationally. First, there is the intense pressure faced by working in the field. The physical demands of the job include long hours on your feet, sometimes rushing through corridors between patients to get to emergencies, and a level of focus during operations that takes everything out of you. Breaks are often skipped or interrupted, the work hours are long, and the days rostered on provide little time off from the stressful environment of a medical centre or hospital. Then we have the mental and emotional demands of the job. These are numerous and never replenished. Medical workers are often burnt out, on the brink of a mental break, and are often unable to decompress after a hard workday. There will be times when they are faced with harrowing decisions and forced to internalise their struggles and emotions for the sake of professionalism. Think of how you get home and vent about work, or message your friend in the weekend to talk stuff over because you need someone to listen to you so you can feel better. Often this isn’t possible for medical workers, in part because the concept of a weekend is foreign in an understaffed sector, and in part because the experiences cannot be understood by someone outside of the field. The toll working in the medical field has is life-changing, and not in the good sense of the term.

Then there is the angry part of this conversation. With how exhausted medical professionals are in their workspaces – understaffed, overworked, not compensated for the trauma that can accrue as a result of their work, and not given enough time to rest and decompress – there seems to be a clear solution. Hire more people. While I don’t know the logistics of being in a hospital, for example, I can understand that when something is functioning over capacity then something needs to be done about it, not “oh, they’re doing well handling this issue”. I know that trained medical professionals are moving overseas to get better-paying jobs than what is currently on offer in New Zealand. I also know that there are medical professionals who are only staying in New Zealand because they feel they have a responsibility to their patients. I don’t want this to turn political, but it seems like the health of our healthcare workers is being taken advantage of just so the government doesn’t have to give them more money to stay in their jobs.

I respect On Call for being a novel with a powerful voice using it to highlight injustices in New Zealand. That’s what under-employing the medical field is, not only for the workers but for anyone who has the misfortune of requiring medical assistance in a centre or facility in New Zealand. I highly encourage those who can stomach some gruesome details to pick this up. It will open your eyes to the realities of healthcare workers and hopefully serve to better teach you the situations many professionals face in their everyday lives.