The story speaks for itself:
Dr. Esther Choo is an Asian-American emergency room physician who has practiced medicine for more than a decade. Yet, she says, a few times a year, a patient will refuse to let her treat them. Solely because of her race.
"The conversation usually goes like this. Me: 'I understand your viewpoint. I trained at elite institutions & have been practicing for 15 years. You are welcome to refuse care under my hands, but I feel confident that I am the most qualified to care for you. Especially since the alternative is an intern.' And they invariably pick the intern, as long as they are white. Or they leave," she wrote in successive tweets.
"I used to cycle through disbelief, shame, anger. Now I just show compassion and move on," she added.
..
"What I'm hearing from my colleagues is that this is a daily occurrence for many of them, at least experiences of prejudice. The patient who outright refuses care is less common, but I definitely heard from a lot of people this week that they have also had that exact same experience," she said.
Patient prejudice towards doctors is now so common that many medical professionals "consider it a routine part of our jobs," Choo emphasized.
"Maybe it's that they're from another country or because of their religious beliefs or their sexual orientation or their gender. But I'm hearing it from a lot of physicians that this is not unusual," she described.
Doctor: White nationalists refuse her care over race - CNN
Dr. Esther Choo is an Asian-American emergency room physician who has practiced medicine for more than a decade. Yet, she says, a few times a year, a patient will refuse to let her treat them. Solely because of her race.
"The conversation usually goes like this. Me: 'I understand your viewpoint. I trained at elite institutions & have been practicing for 15 years. You are welcome to refuse care under my hands, but I feel confident that I am the most qualified to care for you. Especially since the alternative is an intern.' And they invariably pick the intern, as long as they are white. Or they leave," she wrote in successive tweets.
"I used to cycle through disbelief, shame, anger. Now I just show compassion and move on," she added.
..
"What I'm hearing from my colleagues is that this is a daily occurrence for many of them, at least experiences of prejudice. The patient who outright refuses care is less common, but I definitely heard from a lot of people this week that they have also had that exact same experience," she said.
Patient prejudice towards doctors is now so common that many medical professionals "consider it a routine part of our jobs," Choo emphasized.
"Maybe it's that they're from another country or because of their religious beliefs or their sexual orientation or their gender. But I'm hearing it from a lot of physicians that this is not unusual," she described.
Doctor: White nationalists refuse her care over race - CNN