Shortland Street - The Podcast: Behind the scenes of the medical emergencies

Ria Vandervis and Scott Smart star as Harper Whitley and Marty Walker on Shortland Street. Photos / Supplied

For nearly 10 years, Ria Vandervis has been better known to the New Zealand public for her role as emergency department doctor Harper Whitley on Shortland Street.

Despite her long time in the role, she has not quite picked up any medical skills yet - but that hasn't stopped people calling on her for medical advice.

On today's episode of Shortland Street - The Podcast, presented by NZME and iHeartRadio, Vandervis told host and co-star Kura Forrester and fellow panelist Scott Smart, who stars as Dr Marty Walker, about a real life medical emergency that interrupted her time running the Auckland Marathon.

"Really close to the start line, like a few hundred metres, someone tripped over and smacked their head. It was terrible.

"I didn't really know what to do, but someone grabbed me because they thought that I was a doctor. I did stay to make sure they were on the side but didn't move them too much."

She said a similar experience happened when the show filmed in Fiji, where the show is incredibly popular, and many of the people they interacted with thought they were real doctors and not actors.

It's a similar experience to Shortland Street icon Amanda Billing, who played Dr Sarah Potts, who popped in to share her experiences, including one time she was at the supermarket around 6.30pm before the show's 7pm airtime.

"I was in the queue for the checkout, and the checkout operator looked at her watch and she said 'You'd better get going'.

"She thought that Shortland Street was shot 7PM to 7.30PM. I thought that was great."

While Vandervis and Smart don't have real experience, they have certainly picked up some skills during their time on the show - namely, how to importantly shuffle papers to look busy, and how best to pronounce complex terms and look like they can pull off procedures.

They are also joined by Sally Geary, a real practising nurse who also serves as one of the show's medical supervisors, who reveals which actors are the trickiest to work with and what medical storyline she said no to.

A new episode of the podcast will be released every Thursday for the next eight weeks. Subscribe to ensure you don't miss out on any of the action.

You can follow the podcast at nzherald.co.nz, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.