Mr Hearns said seriously ill patients in remote areas such as Mull or Barra would be taken to a hospital with GP cover, but critical care for any emergency interventions may not be available.
The joke is told tenderly by Paul Reiser, urbanely by Martin Mull, seductively by the sublime Sarah Silverman, gravely and with much loving, superfluous detail by George Carlin, and shrilly, with an emotion bordering on hysteria, by the inspired pixie Gilbert Gottfried.