‘My first thoughts are…’: a Framework Method analysis of UK general practice healthcare professionals’ internal dialogue and clinical reasoning processes when seeing patients living with obesity in primary care

While it is part of the diagnostic skill of a clinician to be able to form a clinical picture based on the information available, it is important to be aware of the potential for assumptions made within this process to contribute to unconscious bias/stereotyping. Healthcare professionals need to work to counteract the potential impact of internal bias on their consultations to provide fair and equitable care for people living with obesity, by exercising reflexivity within their clinical practice.