Hamish Blake is forced to apologize for his latest prank – after some Aussies called him ‘privileged’ and out of touch
He has been a successful radio presenter, comedian, actor and presenter, but Hamish Blake has admitted – in the face of outrage from the medical community – he could not be a GP. Not even for 24 hours.
The two-time Gold Logie winner had joked that general medical practice was the highest paying job he could competently do in a day.
This caused outrage in the medical community and even led to MPs in the upper house of the NSW parliament calling the statement “as ridiculous as thinking that being a frequent flyer gives you the ability to fly an aeroplane”.
In a podcast published hours after the MPs were censured, Blake admitted his soft-spoken attitude had caused hurt.
“We like to dig into this show, we’ve done some digging,” he said late Wednesday.
“But in this case, I think it’s a very, very easy choice to apologize because number one, obviously, we love Doctors and we’d love to see one again.
“And we have zero interest if it upset people and upset this percentage of people.”
Comedian Hamish Blake apologized to GPs after saying he could do their job despite having no training
He previously suggested that while doctors should go to medical school, he thought he might make it in a day.
“I google a lot of medical problems and now I have 20 years of experience going to the GP,” he said on his Hamish and Andy podcast.
The Lego Masters host said he would refer any serious cases, such as breathing difficulties, to emergency departments or other specialists.
GP-turned-NSW Greens MP Amanda Cohn thanked Blake for his apology.
“I’m relieved we can get on with our lives without the fear of a comedian trying to be a GP the next time we need expert medical help,” she told AAP.
Dr Cohn on Wednesday called back the comments and led state lawmakers calling the statement “ridiculous”.
Amid a national shortage, it was not right to ‘hit an exhausted, undervalued and essential workforce’, she said.
Hamish said he was only joking and that he would “one day like to see a doctor again”, so he thought he should apologize
“The perception that GPs are somehow lesser doctors is widespread,” Dr Cohn told NSW parliament on Wednesday.
“General practitioners know more about gynecology than cardiologists, more about cardiology than orthopedic surgeons, and more about orthopedics than psychiatrists.”
A rural physician contacted Dr Cohn to invite Blake to spend a day at her clinic to see firsthand the variety of complex and multiple presentations.
Other GPs had recalled cases of back pain turning out to be metastatic prostate cancer, reflux turning out to be a heart attack or baby fever being early signs of meningitis, the Greens MP said.
Opposition MP Damien Tudehope also stood to remember his father delivering triplets as a GP overseeing a small rural hospital.
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