if this (or worse) feels like it's happening to you, you're not imagining it. malicious/neglectful malpractice is common and doctors are not immune to bias!
my dad is a doctor & i grew up surrounded by doctors. he and his colleagues openly discussed the ways they ignored, gaslit and discriminated against patients. unsurprisingly this was disproportionately directed at disabled people, racialized people, women and queers.
my father intentionally makes patients wait for various types of care or directs them to the worst/slowest providers because he believes this exhaustion tactic will weed out 'whiny people'. i've been hearing his colleagues describe doing the same my whole life. i'm better at recognizing malicious malpractice in BC health care due to my experience with it, which is just more data to add to the extensive research that proves this is happening.
i got a head start on this - it's worth spending the time to research how to navigate around health care.
I used to think this was not very common. After the last month of dealing with my husband's health issues, I completely believe this is more common. We've been to the ER twice and urgent care 3 times and we still have no definitive answers and are being forced to wait until December to get the necessary testing done, unless there is a cancellation in the meantime. My mother-in-law had to practically yell at the ER doctor to not discharge him until he was given IV fluids. Apparently there is a shortage, but we were not told anything until she confronted them. (so thankful she was there, I'm not a confrontational person.) They also lied to our faces about not being able to do the testing in the ER. When my husband called the specialist to make an appointment, the doctor said they do it all the time.