Fighting the Tyrants | UK Column Interviews

Charles Mallett (0:08)

Hello, I'm Charles Mallett with the UK Column Interview, and today I have with me Sam Bailey, but not for the first time. So it's a very warm welcome back to UK Column, Sam.

Sam Bailey (0:19)

Thank you so much, Charles, for letting me come on your channel and speak with you.

Charles Mallett (0:26)

Well, not at all. And it's an absolute delight to see you again, although these are not the circumstances that either of us would have chosen and absolutely certainly not the ones that you had hoped would unfold.

Just talk us through what has happened, because to condense it into the smallest of nutshells, I think I'd be right in saying that you've made, frankly, the biggest decision of all over the past six years in deciding to appeal for help, which is a massive step for you personally. Just tell the audience a bit about why that is.

Sam Bailey (1:06)

Yeah. So I am asking for help to pay the medical authorities, New Zealand Medical Council, $250,000.

They have charged me with fines, and I have been, like you said, fighting this for six years. It's come to a head because they have basically summoned me to a high court for bankruptcy proceedings, so to liquidate my assets on the 5th of November, unless I pay them this money beforehand. And I can tell you about the background of why this has happened and all of that.

Charles Mallett (1:47)

Yeah. Well, that is exactly what I am going to ask you to do. And I know for those listening, it might sound dry, but the first, yeah, you sort of straight up the idea that that's the amount of money that you're being hounded for, that this has happened at all, I think will catch a number of people by surprise. Now, the previous interview that we recorded together, I entitled, Facing the Tyrants. And I think it's just worth harking back to that briefly, because first of all, I think that's exactly what you have been doing, but also what you are doing. And I think over the course of this discussion, this interview, it will become clear as to how asking for help to do what it is you want to do and indeed need to do will all make sense.

The other thing I think is really worth pointing out is just to remember that after that interview, there was from the UK Column audience a massive outpouring of emotion, support, positivity, and I will hope that all of that and more can be harnessed again. But so what we'll do, Sam, is we'll go back in time and we'll just look at, first of all, let's just look at your career as it was even before 2020 started. Just give us a very brief overview of what it is you were doing and indeed I think the critical part is what part in the public's eye you played in their life.

Sam Bailey (3:16)

I should also say to begin with, my voice, I have a cold, so excuse me for sounding. I said to Charles before that I sound a little bit like an orc, so excuse me for that. Anyway, so going back in time, I worked as a medical doctor for 15 years and my specialty was in clinical trials, work actually in drug trials, looking after patients later on in the phases of the drug development, so when testing them on people who have the disease and things. And I also worked as a family doctor. And during that time, I started my own online business, online doctor business, and I got headhunted to be a presenter for a TV show, a major network in New Zealand. And so I fronted that and was very popular. So amongst in my work is a doctor and also in the sort of TV world.

And that was prior to 2020

I was, that was really what I was doing.

Charles Mallett (4:19)

Okay.

And yet now, according to the Medical Council of New Zealand, you present a serious risk of harm to the public. How on earth has that come about?

Sam Bailey (4:32)

Yeah, so I had never actually had a patient complaint in my entire career. And not that I'm perfect, but I worked very hard and I was very well respected by my colleagues. But in, so in leading into 2020, I had started, a good friend of mine had said to me that I should start my own vlog on YouTube. So make my own videos about health topics. And I didn't even, I'd never thought of something, of doing something like that. And she said, you'd be good at it because you can do the TV presenting side. And so I thought, okay, I'll start doing this. And it was for my online business. Anyhow, COVID happened.