Scottish GP says Strictly Come Dancing experience brought joy

A Scottish GP who has become the fifth star to be eliminated from this year’s Strictly Come Dancing said the experience brought joy to her, her family and her patients.

Dr Punam Krishan and dance partner, Gorka Marquez got put out of the TV dance competition performing a tango to Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams.

The doctor, who has appeared on the BBC’s Morning Live and Radio Scotland, lost out in a Halloween dance off to singer Shayne Ward.

She said the experience improved her time management skills and taught her to “say yes more”.

Speaking after being eliminated from the show, she told BBC Scotland’s Drivetime programme the experience helped her patients get to know her.

She said: “It’s brought lots of joy to consultations, I think people forget that as doctors, as healthcare professionals we are under so much pressure in the NHS but we are also people.

“It has been nice for my patients to see another side to me, we’re not just those serious people who sit at the other side of the consultation table.”

The doctor balanced her role as a GP with training sessions that could last up to eight hours as well as weekly trips to London.

“Consultations have been a lot longer than normal, and it is bizarre when you are talking about a rash and then all of a sudden you are talking about Strictly,” she continued.

“It’s been really fun, I feel like my patients have got to know me a lot better outside of the room and it has brought a bit of joy to them too.”

She said it was a real team effort, helped in part by her Strictly “super fan” practice manager.

Krishnan, who is married to Scottish Conservative MSP Sandesh Gulhane said her family was able to join in the fun too.

“My whole family has been so invested in this, and its brought so much joy, excitement and escapism to all of us,” she said.

“I feel like we’ve just been on this epic ride as a family, we’ve had so much fun, so many memories have been made and I know we’ll just be talking about this for years to come.”

Earlier in the series, Krishnan and Marquez became the first competing couple in the show’s 20-year history to have performed to a traditional Bollywood song.

Krishan, whose parents moved from the Punjab to Glasgow in the 1970s told Strictly spin-off show, It Takes Two that she hoped her children would feel “really proud”, seeing her performing the couple’s choice routine to a Bollywood song.

She said: “Representation matters, so for me this is a huge moment.”

She admitted she is “gutted” to have been eliminated and said she enjoyed most of the experience.

She continued: “It is the most nerve wracking thing I’ve ever done, there’s no saliva in your mouth, the heart is racing – you can feel it pulsing through your eyeballs, and then the music starts.

“And the you have to face the judges, it is like getting your exam results in front of the whole country, that bit I just hated.”