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Hamish Blake forced to apologize for latest joke – after some Australians brand him ‘privileged’ and out of touch
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He was a successful radio host, comedian, actor and presenter, but Hamish Blake admitted – to anger from the medical community – that he could not be a GP. Not even for 24 hours.
The two-time Gold Logie winner had joked that general practice was the best-paid job he could competently do for a day.
This sparked outrage from the medical community and even led MPs in the upper house of the NSW parliament to call the statement “as ridiculous as thinking that being a frequent flyer gives you the necessary skills to fly a plane.
In a podcast released hours after MPs’ censorship, Blake acknowledged his light-hearted attitude had caused harm.
“We like to dig this show, we’ve done some digging,” he said Wednesday night.
“But in this case, I think it’s a very, very easy choice to apologize because first of all, obviously we love doctors and would like to see one again.
“And we have no interest if it upset people and if it upset that percentage of people.”
Comedian Hamish Blake apologized to GPs after saying he could do their job despite having no training
He had suggested earlier that although doctors had to attend medical school, he thought he could get by for a day.
“I Google a lot of medical issues and I now have 20 years of GP experience,” he said on his Hamish and Andy podcast.
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The Lego Masters host said he would refer any serious cases such as breathing difficulties to emergency services or other specialists.
Amanda Cohn, a GP turned NSW Greens MP, thanked Blake for his apology.
“I’m relieved that we can live our lives without worrying that a comedian will try to become a GP the next time we need help from an expert doctor,” she told AAP.
Dr. Cohn denounced the comments Wednesday and led state lawmakers in calling the statement “ridiculous.”
Amid a national shortage, it is not acceptable to “attack a depleted, undervalued and essential workforce,” she said.
Hamish said he was only joking and that he “would like to see a doctor again someday”, so he felt he should apologise.
“The perception that GPs are somehow lesser doctors is widespread,” Dr Cohn told the 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 in his clinic to see for himself the variety of complex and numerous presentations.
Other GPs recalled cases of back pain turning out to be metastatic prostate cancer, reflux being a heart attack or a baby’s fever being the first signs of meningitis, the MP said Green.
Opposition MP Damien Tudehope also rose to recall his father delivering triplets while he was a GP overseeing a small rural hospital.