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?

I am a dentist, for us you can only practice under the name on dental register, if she changes to her married name on medical register that is that, it's her legal practising name, I'm sure she can't be forced to keep her maiden name all she has to do is send a copy of marriage certificate to GMC and that will be it changed on the register whether you like it or not,

You are going to have to chat but ultimately if she wishes to change her name it will have to be accepted, there is a medical practice near me with 3 Dr Macdonald 2male, 1 female I am pretty sure none of them are related it seems to work fine,

When I was working in the west coast of Scotland many patients had exactly the same first and second name l think 152 Macleod all with same first name, we coped but people were used to , the practice software needed altering to cope with identical names. In some places there will be many patients all with second name Singh

Patients will not get confused they will use some other description like the young one or the blonde one

I book most of my appointments online, so the ‘young one’, ‘old one’ doesn’t work there. There are two Dr Jones and they helpfully show which is male and which is female in case of preference.

we have dr john, smith and dr sarah smith, (also not helpful but a little easier with them being different sexes)

also had a dr davies and dr davis combo. (fucking nightmare to remember which was which)

( all names changed to something similar)

and a dr first name cos the patients can't be arsed to learn the very long foreign surname dr.

so yanbu. for the sake of the patients.

Of course it will be a problem if she changes her name. I'm a bit surprised that she can't see how it will have an impact on patients. Certainly talk with her to see if she can come up with a reasonable solution. If not, then you're going to have to make the decision.

The patients' needs have the priority, not her wish to change her name to something that could be very confusing to them.

Does she have a middle name?

Maybe she'd be happy to go by Dr Lucy Jayne to differentiate between the two of you?

OP you sound just awful. You would be massively unreasonable and arrogant, not to mention asking for a employment tribunal judgement, to demand she keep her name. Just wow.

Put the ball in her court and ask her for her proposed solutions. Several have been mentioned. Solutions which will involve your receptionists who apparently can't work out which patients normally see you and which see her.

You must be AMAZING to work with.

She is as doctor (as are you, of course), surely you two could sit down and work out the best way to avoid confusion?

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

So why are you asking for Mumsnet's permission?

While I can see your concern I think your manner is likely to make the whole situation worse.

At my clinic we had a doctor whose name was unusual within the area and might have been hard to say so she became known as Dr Firstname. If you approach her fairly and with a view to compromise this might be a way forward. If you dictate and insist that she can’t then she may well proceed just to piss you off.

YANBU. That she hasn’t considered the impact on patients herself is concerning.

kooshbin

The patients' needs have the priority, not her wish to change her name to something that could be very confusing to them.

And if the OP has a discussion phrasing it in that way she might get somewhere. However, if she stamps her feet and claims seniority and tells her what to do she is BU.

But its still up to the other Dr what she wants to call herself, professionally or personally.

But she might have done - had OP actually discussed this and found out?

In answer to your OP
You would be unreasonable to actually tell her she can't change her name
You wouldn't be unreasonable to point out the practical difficulties that it is likely to present and ask her to come up with a workable solution before she makes the change.

What if she is listed as Dr Townshend (nee maiden name) then she’s still practicing under her gmc name if she changes it, but will be identifiable for online bookings?

I think the finest solution would be to point out that many of her patients will assume she has married you!

We have two GPs with same name at my surgery. Luckily, they are different sexes and the female Dr has a specialty so to specifically get an appointment with her you just need to say "the female Dr Smith" or "Dr Smith for my foot problem"

I am just wondering if you would refuse to employ a male doctor who happened to have the same name as an exisiting male doctor at your practice?

Brilliant.

1)You cannot ban her from changing her name
2)It would be fucking stupid of her to change her professional name, in the circumstances
3)Try explaining to her, not having a go
4)With any luck, when she realises what a hassle it will be for her to change everything (RCGP, GMC, MPS, BMA etc) she'll decide against
5)Go ask in the women's forum on dnuk, where the issues are more universally understood
6)If that's your real name, for the love of god ask for the thread to be pulled, you eejit

You have 100% no control as to whether she changes her surname personally and professionally. Hopefully between you, you can work out a solution but it’s unlikely with your attitude.

YANBU . All the female doctors in our GP’s go by their maiden names. There have been at least 3 married couples in the partnership over the past few years.

You need to approach her sensibly and nicely and discuss it with all partners and express your sensible reasons why it won’t work. But ultimately I doubt you can stop her, so need to find a compromise.

Would the practice have refused to employ her, despite her apparent suitability, if she had had the same name as one of her colleagues? Is that the practice policy?

Utterly stupid if that is the practice policy, and if it is not the practice policy then you are clearly being unreasonable.

As PP's have said, her middle name could be added (if she has one) or she could be listed as Dr Lucy T.

Or, if those weren't suitable you could simply be referred to as old Dr Lucy Townsend and a young Dr Lucy Townshend. That's what the patients will do.

Employment law is not relevant here - no one is an employee.

She’d be mad to do it, but I don’t see how you can stop her. The GMC won’t care what you think!

YANBU. Not just confusing for patients, but then confusion starts with chemists, referrals, medical records etc. with a simple, tiny spelling mistake. There is a business case for this in terms of smooth running of your workplace.

If I remember it right a GP practice don't employ GPs, each GP is self employed. The OP will know better than me though, I might be totally wrong.