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?

Growing up our GP practice had:
Dr Reed
Dr Reed (father and son)
Dr Reid
Dr Read

Wasn't confusing as we knew them as
Father Reed
Dr Michael
Dr Richard
And I can't remember the other offhand.

It amused us rather than anything else.

My parents were both Dr Diddles at the same practice (different roles). Mum got called Dr Anna sometimes. You just have to find a way round.

The arsey one or the nice one?

Our community midwives had two Annes. Known to local women as ‘Nice Anne’ and ‘Evil Anne’.

Names have obviously been changed to protect Nice Anne.

If you come across in practice like you do on this thread trust me patients will be able to differentiate, they just asked for 'the bitchy one'

I think the best solution is for you to continue as Dr Lucy Townsend and her to be Dr Lucy Anne Townshend. Surely if receptionists need a way to differentiate, it’ll be old one/young one?

Yab ridiculous to tell her she can’t change her name. The confusion will pass. Anyone who is seeing a GP infrequently can probably deal with seeing a different GP. At our practice I see a different doc every time (not my choice!).

Other ideas: get photos on your website. Email pictures and names of you and her to patient list. Put a notice on the wall behind the reception desk.

Surely at most surgeries now the dr you are registered with comes up on the booking screen so it would be at that point it would need to be dealt with. Also it's rare to get to see a named Dr these days in most surgeries isn't it? At mine I get to see my Dr if he happens to be free when I need to see him otherwise it's whoever is available.

Many years ago, when sons followed fathers into such professions, you would have Old Dr Smith and Young Dr Smith, do you think that would work for you, OP ?

YABU. The solution is to call your colleague young Dr Bloggs. You can be old Dr Bloggs i honour of your seniority. Unless you invite your patients to call you Old Lucy, I trust you would always call me Mrs Greenfly and not attempt to use my first name. Your colleague is your equal too.

Golly is this thread real?

and this is why junior doctors think all senior doctors have it agaist them.

you cant tell her she cant change her name! thats got be some sort of employment rights issue. she has the legal right to change it with the GMC on marriage and the name the GMC hold is the one she needs to practice in. i imagine you would be on fairly sticky ground if you fire somone because they changed their name on marriadge. you can of course have a discussion about how patient saftey will be maintained and offer up the sugestion she keeps her maiden name professionlay.

ive worked in a practice with a senior partner - Dr John Smith (not the real name) and his son also Dr John Smith as junior partner and you know what patients managed (the used the prefix, the old and the young Dr Smith mainly) some surnames are very common and there are is often more than one doctor by that name

doi:junior doctor who changed her name on marriage

p.s she may well read this

You can't tell her what to do.

It sounds like a total over reaction to me. Surely it's not beyond your wit to come up with an informal solution, using middle names or one of the other suggestions on here? You're making a mountain out of a molehill and coming across as fairly unpleasant with it

sorry for the typos my phone key oard is broken

Yes you can definitely tell her not to using her married name professionally at your practice. The company I work for doesn’t let regulated persons change their names professionally either.

Do what pallisers said (andother PPs!)

I get how much of a faff this could be. In particular where patients need evidence for things and you'd be writing a report confirming they saw you - requests would get misfiled all the time and delays would happen.

It happens to me a lot with the courts. A colleague and I both get cited to court a lot in relation to our particular caseloads (we work a lot with the police). I'm e.g. Lucy Johnstone, she's Lucy Johnson. We both arrived approx the same time though so no seniority issue, and although we both use our middle names on EVERYTHING it still happens and causes a lot of grief.

Could you speak to her about how much of an utter ballache changing her name with the GMC and all the other bodies will be? Not to mention the cost, right after a pricey wedding....
Also she'll lose all her publications if she changes her professional name which doesn't seem very sensible either.

Well I'd like to see you try that with me.

If I tell her she then she can't

My reply just fucking watch me lucy

While I might agree about why you have an issue with it I think your attitude stinks and if I were this new doctor you'd get a sharp shock trying to talk to me like that!

I can't decide if you are being unreasonable but I definitely think your colleague is for even considering this.

The thing is I don't think you should be having to address this at all because she should have the common sense to realise it's not a good move for the patients.

Surely, if the OP went to the trouble of inventing "Lucy" for the purposes of this thread, she will also have changed "Townsend?"

I don't think it is unreasonable, for operational reasons, to expect that this new doctor practises under a different name. Nor is the OP being a bitch to expect that she does, if she is a senior partner of 20 years' standing. I can't believe that people are seriously expecting her to change her name, after this long. Oh yes, except this is MN, a parallel universe to real life!

To be honest in the current climate if I was a senior partner who had been able to recruit a NEW partner who was half decent I personally would be willing to change my name to Dr 'old lady doctor" in order to keep her happy.
Perhaps ask her how she intends to make it work... She must have realised too. (And I wouldnt pull rank as senior partner and "tell her" what to do.... You're meant to be partners in a business not her boss)

sorry duchy duke you are wrong
she can change her name with GMC and once she does she has to practice with the name registered with GMC

when I got married I just sent my marriage certificate to GDC (dentist) and my name was changed on register there is absolutely nothing OP can do to stop her colleague changing her name, we had moved so wasn't in same practice

and it's really easy to change name at GMC / GDC there is no cost other than sending certified copy of marriage certificate by registered post

what would OP have done if a Dr Luca Townsend had applied for the post refused him as luca is only 1 letter different to lucy and the surname is identical,!!!

Wow what a fluky situation! Could you ask her to use her middle name? After all you had the name first!

I do see what you’re saying OP, and while you can point out your concerns, you certainly cannot instruct her not to change her name.

What would you have done if she’d alreafy been married when she came to you? Not engaged her because she had a similar name to yours, even if she was the best fit for your practice?

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

From one doctor to another, a friendly reminder from the GMC, Working with Colleagues...

"You must treat your colleagues fairly and with respect. You must not bully or harass them"

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

I imagine if that's your approach to working with a colleague, she won't stick around for long, so that will solve your problem.