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?

My first job was in a department store and the rule was you couldn't have the same surname as another employee. So if there was already a Miss Slocombe then you had to choose another name. (For some reason, we all had to be Miss whether married or not!)

My old GP practice had almost the same issue with two GPs with same surname. One became known as Dr Christine, and the other Dr Cameron. Seniority trumped the newbie.

*nearly exact same

What was her response when you raised the issue with her? Not thought it through, or determined to stick with it?

Does she intend to stay at your practice long? 'Partner' sounds serious and long term. If she was there for just a year or so she could be 'young Dr Townshend' (though I appreciate you don't really want to be 'old Dr Townsend!).

It's completely reasonable, in the context, to not allow her to change her name.

It would be very confusing all round.

I also think she must be a bit silly if she thinks it would possibly be ok or to change her name at all but that's not a popular opinion on here

Could she hyphenate her name with her maiden name and married name. So you remained Dr Townsend and she became Dr Kennedy-Townshend (or whatever it would be). Might be worth approaching her and saying you have realised the practice will need a way to deal with the issues it will cause and suggest a couple of ideas and ask if she has had any thoughts.

I thought you had to practise under the name you qualified with?

All the doctors I know kept their maiden name professionally.

It would be unreasonable for you to tell her that she can't use her married name- she's entitled to go by whatever name she chooses.

And I think the first name is a bit of a red herring- patients aren't going to know or refer to first names anyway.

The diplomatic and professional thing to do would be to sit and have a chat with her about how potential problems could be managed- for example, would she be willing to be known as Dr Lucy Smith- Townsend on your internal systems?

I can understand why you are asking this but YABU. Particularly your attitude to saying if you tell her to do something she has to do it. What if she refuses? would you discipline her? I can't see that would have any ground whatsoever.
Names are important to people and for some a huge part of marriage is taking their partner's name.

You need to talk to this other Dr in a respectful and polite way about ways around this. She has every right to the name as you do regardless of how long you've worked there. It's her name.

I think you need to be careful how you tread though because your attitude on here screams that you think you don't have much respect for her.

I don’t think you’d be unreasonable to tell her though hopefully she won’t need telling.

As the senior partner you have a responsibility not only for ensuring your practice runs smoothly but also for patient safety and satisfaction and confusion over such matters could impact on these. A patient wants to see you but gets an appt for the other doctor, turns up and isn’t hsppy so leaves appt and makes another. Their care is impacted and there’s a detrimental effect to the practice due to wasted appts.

Hospital doctors will write letters from referral appts to the wrong GP, this will waste your time/her time which could be better spent seeing patients.

What does she say about this? She woukd be a total fool to want the practice to run that way.

Have you actually sat down and discussed it with her? She’d be pretty dim not to realise it would cause a problem. Maybe you’ve got the wrong end of the stick?

There are 2 doctors with the same surname at my doctors and very similar first names (think Kate and Katy) it is confusing.

Could you suggest to your colleague that she use Townshend-Maidenname as her professional name?

Well I would hate to be your patient!

I think you have made some very pertinent points OP, and you've lain out well the potential impact to your patients. It's all well and good saying that receptionists should be checking records etc but it could potentially impact the efficiency of appointment booking and could lead to a lot of mix ups down the line- I'd imagine even your email addresses would be very similar

i ran this past DH (works in employee relations) and he said that she can insist on the change regardless of the dynamic in the practice. Your best bet is to have an informal conversation and lay out what you've mentioned above and ask her if she can think of a solution. If she can, brilliant, if she can't or if she doesn't think there will be any issues then you have bigger problems.

When folk phone for an appointment and your staff look then up, will they not be able to tell which one of you they saw and make the appoint appropriately? I can appreciate the dilemma but tbh the way you've come across here makes me think you're not the nicest.

We had 2 teachers who had the same name, neither had a middle name, so one was Jane Jones Scripture and the Other was Jane Jones Drama.
More difficult in a medical practise setting though.
You do need to talk to her, explain the difficulties and you can ask that for professional purposes she retains use of her original name.
Ultimately it will be her decision to change it or not in a professional setting.

Is this a wind up?
OP I do hope you don't treat your patients like this.

She's free to do whatever she likes with her name regardless of whether you find it an inconvenience. As PPs have said, by all means point out to her that it would be an inconvenience but she's within her rights to say no. If she does then you'll both have to find some kind of compromise, however I get the feeling that this isn't something you're used to ;)

'I remember reading “The Handmaid’s Tale” when I was a kid and realising that being called Mrs Bob Smith was just another version of Offbob. Surreal when you think about it.'

Haha! You'll probably get a kicking for that but I agree with you

Daft of her to be changing her name professionally at all. It will be so confusing for patients and colleagues. I think you're well within your rights to ask her to suggest a solution

Hyphenate or use middle initials. At my junior school we had Mrs M Clarke and Mrs D Clarke.
YWBU to speak to your colleague in the dictatorial tone that comes across in your OP.

I can see the issue, but what if she'd applied for job when already married?

can you just explain the situation and how complicated it would be? Has she thought about it yet? Banning her from changing her name would be a bit much but pointing out what a massive pain in the arse it would be and how you kept using your maiden name to avoid confusing patients is a bit friendlier. But quite PA as ultimately the same....

Are you worried that the patients who go to see her by accident might end up liking her more than you? You could end up with no patients at all and will be forced to spend your time throwing crumpled up pieces of paper into the waste paper basket

For anyone saying they'd hate to be OP's patient- she's made it clear that her objection is stemming from a concern about how is going to potentially impact on the people who are seeking treatment at the practice.

I'd rather my GP thought long term about the quality of service the surgery can provide rather than tip-toes around a colleague and hopes the problem never arises.

Would it not make more sense to ensure the medical receptionists know what they are doing? Maybe your old patients will like having a new doctor??