To tell colleague she can't change her name?

[Professionalminefield]

To summarise:

I am a GP partner, and have been at the practice I work at for over 20 years. I changed my name when I got married, but continued to practise under my maiden name, as that's what my patients know me by.

We have a relatively new partner in the practice, who has the same first name as me. (Let's say it's Lucy). She is getting married in the summer, and is planning on changing her name both personally and professionally.

The issue is that, as I found out today, her fiancé's surname is almost identical to my professional name. My surname is Townsend, her married name is Townshend.

So our practice will have a Dr Lucy Townsend and a Dr Lucy Townshend.

This is absolutely not going to work for multiple reasons:
- Many patients, especially those who don't come that regularly, struggle to remember who their GP is, or which GP they want to see. They're not going to be able to distinguish between Dr Townsend and Dr Townshend if prompted on the phone.
- We are in an ethnically diverse area with high levels of immigration. As a result, many of our receptionists (who give out some appointments) and our patients are not native English speakers and will struggle to hear the very slight difference between the names.

WIBU to tell my colleague that she can't change her name?

The OP def did have a point but

If I tell her she can't, then she can't.

Just made her sound like a twat and I guess got peoples’ backs up.

especially when its obviously going to be a monumental pain in the arse for everyone involved.

I don't see that it is.

Patient "I would like to see Dr Townsend"
Receptionist "Is that Dr Townsend Snr partner?"
Patient "yes"

OP, I am glad that you got it sorted out and that the other partners and the doctor herself saw common sense. No point in creating operational nightmares when you don't need to.

Boneyback I have no knowledge of or interest in the “ranks” of the GPs at my practice. I would not have any idea if my doctor was the Senior Partner. Do most people?

Patient "I would like to see Dr Townsend"
Receptionist "Is that Dr Townsend Snr partner?"
Patient "yes"

x 100 times per day, every day.
Plus all the admin that will no doubt go wrong

Patient "I would like to see Dr Townsend"
Receptionist "Is that Dr Townsend Snr partner?"
Patient "yes"

You don’t work with the general public, do you?

JessieMcJessie

Put whatever description in that you like. But it wouldn't take more than a minute to find out which Dr they wanted to see.

And TBH, I have never seen the same Dr twice in a row, if patients decide that they do want to see the same Dr they would be able to provide a description, name or if push really came to shove, it should be in their computerised notes.

SpuriouserAndSpuriouser

You don’t work with the general public, do you?

You would be wrong in thinking that.

Patient "I would like to see Dr Lucy Townsend"
Receptionist "Is that Dr Lucy Townsend Snr partner?"
Patient "My Dr, the one I usually see"
"Is that Snr or Junior"
"Oh are there two, I had no idea there were two with the same name, how funny, mine is the one with glasses"
"They both have glasses, do you mean the one who has red hair"
"Oh I never looked at her hair, she's about 45"
"Yes thats Dr Lucy Senior"

Meanwhile the world is on hold for the brief window of opportunity to get an appointment that day and posting on here in rage about it.

WindDoesNotBreakTheBendyTree

x 100 times per day, every day.
Plus all the admin that will no doubt go wrong

Asking and answering questions is surely part of the receptionists job.

The problem is, I would really struggle to describe my doctor. Balding, late middle aged bloke? Like half the doctors in my GP surgery.

I do see that the OP may have put some people's backs up. However, I think that if she had had a tactful word, it could have really backfired. Going off and having private discussions about an issue which affects the whole practice (even if it affects the OP and this other person) may really annoy the other partners. Some organisations want stuff raised in front of everybody.

Another issue is that I can't see when this tactful word (in private) is meant to happen. If the OP popped into the other person's office for a quick chat, that is time that neither are seeing a patient and, possibly, time that they are keeping patients waiting. There will be time set aside for the partners to meet but probably not for the sort of quick discussions that could happen in my office.

What would op do if there were two patients with the same name?

Again, same surgery. Ds1 and another patient had the same first and surname. Ds2 became Master M Soks whereas other patient was Mr M Soks on the screen.

Up and down the country there are 100's of people who work with someone with the same name. Some of them will be in customer facing roles. Their email addresses might be just one digit different from a senior colleague memories of receiving an email meant for very much upper management Forcing one to take on an identity they may not want would hardly foster good working relations.

Op discuss it reasonably with your colleague without contribution from the others. They have no input in this. It only concerns the two of you. You might find your colleague has a middle initial she is happy to use - DR L A Townshend and Dr L Townsend. Or as partner will you simply decline to employ anyone whose name is in anyway similar to existing colleagues?

And please don't assume all your patients are daft. Otherwise when you look at the notes for Mrs D Smith, 7 station way, you are actually seeing Mrs D Smith, 17 station way.

No way should she change her name to one similar to yours, it would be far too confusing for the patients. Where I work if someone joins with the same name as a current member of staff they have to choose another name (middle or nickname) as we work with the public taking bookings

Surely there must be countless GP practices/dentists etc. where staff have the same surname. There must be ways round it.

"What would op do if there were two patients with the same name? "

This is an irrelevance, as GPs and staff have access to the patient records, including address and date of birth and so can differentiate appropriately although mistakes do still happen when people aren't paying sufficient attention

Patients do not have such access to their GP's details, nor should they.

How about looking at it another way then.

On MN the baby boards are full of parents being told "no one owns a name".

The only organisation I know of where two people cannot have the same name is Equity, because the name is considered the person's brand. Perhaps op needs to reconsider her career if being unique is that important.

But Mini people are also told it will be confusing to have cousins with the same first name and surname, living in the same vtown, likely to go to the same primary school.

Actually, why can't you be Old Lucy and your Colleague New Lucy?

You are both equal to allof your patients why the need for titles at all? Come to think of it my GP practice has difficulty addressing patients with their title and surname, often using Love, Darlin', sweetheart, mum or nothing at all.

Not sure why a name shpuld be relevant to the dr at all when often all the practice staff appear unable to afford the mere scummy patients with that level of courtesy???

I think OP should definitely be Old Lucy.