Okay, this has come up multiple times so apologies for the length of this thread.

Of course I don't think ignoring or being dismissive are decent qualities. But neither do I label these doctors as arrogant. https://twitter.com/LornaMoxham/status/1298005166495379456

I know these doctors are decent because I've gotten to know them. They are kind, compassionate and fantastic doctors. They have hobbies, and families and are a good laugh on night shifts. They go in to work every day and try their best.

But they, just like all of us, are flawed.

They support their colleagues and champion wellbeing and teamwork. And they would be horrified to find they had once made someone feel small and insignificant.

That's why it's an *unconscious* bias.

My tweet has over 600 likes, many by doctors who will undoubtedly consider themselves decent people.

I'm pretty sure 99% of them have been guilty of ignoring or being dismissive towards an HCA, porter, cleaner or housekeeper at some point in their career.

It's not because they're arrogant or bad people. It's because we have an unspoken classist structure to medicine. A doctor *assumes* they won't have anything in common with a band 2 unskilled worker.

Being a largely middle class profession, many doctors have never had to casually interact with normal working class people. So even the best willed doctors ignore the HCAs and other band 2s and think "well I have nothing to say to them & they wouldn't want to talk to me either".

But of course that's not true. My fellow HCAs feel pride to think a doctor has listened to them explain how the patient mobilises. Porters feel like part of the team when someone asks their name and doesn't just refer to them as "the porter".

It's not arrogance.
It's unconscious bias.

So if you're a doctor and you read the original tweet and thought "oh, I can't believe some of my colleagues do that", maybe stop and think because you may be very nice and well liked but it doesn't stop you accidentally doing this too.