Doctor 'advised medical students to act less overtly gay' to pass exam
Dr Una Coales, who wrote a book of guidance for students on how to pass the Clinical Skills Assessment, has now been referred to a senior officer team of the RCGP after they moved to distance themselves from her words.
Chief Executive Neil Hunt said they did not endorse the book and rejected the advice given, which included instructions for a candidate to lower his voice and walk like a “straight man”.
In a separate article, she suggested male students should save off their facial hair, while women should avoid wearing floral dress if they did not wish patients to doubt their doctor credentials and mistake them for a nurse.
Overweight students, she proposed, should “project an image of Santa Claus” by placing their linked hands on stomachs to appear “paternal”.
She also suggested candidates who did not speak English as a first language should “focus on emphasising the lyrical Scottish or Welsh accent” if working in that region to neutralise racial bias.
Regarding what she called the “camp” category of students, she wrote: “One candidate was facing a 3rd sitting and yet no one had told him that his mannerism, gait, speech were too overtly gay, and that he was sitting an exam administered by a right-wing conservative Royal College.
“So I advised him to lower and deepen his high-pitched voice, neutralise the excessive body movements and walk like a ‘straight’ man.”
Dr Coales, who was not writing in role as member of the RGCP council, told the Independent newspaper: “I’m not suggesting the college is racist or homophobic. These are merely tips to neutralise subjective bias.”
(continued, sit up and be straight if you want to go far?)
