Sunrise was unaware its podiatrist had been suspended from practising by regulator.
Sunrise was forced to dump vision of Podiatrist Dr Hassan Al Hamid from its website and socials after it learned he was suspended from practising in February 2024.
He appeared as recently as early July dishing out footwear advice to Natalie Barr and Matt Shirvington.
But the video was later deleted.
Last night on Media Watch, Linton Besser explained, “Since February 2024, he hasn’t been allowed to see patients, call himself a doctor or even dispense advice, which Sunrise failed to mention because Sunrise didn’t know.”
A spokesperson for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency said in a statement, “…it is a criminal offence for an unregistered individual to describe themselves as a health practitioner or hold themselves out to be a registered health practitioner….It is also potentially a criminal offence for entities, including media organisations, to refer to unregistered individuals in such a manner.”
A Seven spokesperson told ABC, “As soon as we were made aware of this matter, we removed the content from our digital platforms. We are reviewing our processes around the verification of professional qualifications to ensure we continue to have robust and appropriate measures in place. On this occasion, we did receive and review qualification documentation from this guest before his on-air appearance.”