To wonder why we always call doctors by their last name

[Loveandpeace56]

In any other profession this wouldn’t be the case. Even teachers do often refer to themselves by their first names but with a doctor this would never happen.

@rachelbloomfan wow I really hope you aren't my GP. You show a complete lack of understanding of the dr/ Patient relationship. You automatically hold the power in the relationship - you don't need a title to do this.
On the one hand we are asked to take control of our own health but on the other we mustn't be too well informed for fear that doctors with huge insecurities such as yourself may feel we have too much power.
I am your intellectual equal, I am an assertive professional woman at the top of her career and yet in many medical situations I have felt incredibly vulnerable and have learned that I need to assert myself to be listened to. You clearly feel that your job is to keep the little people from asserting themselves so you can maintain your ego trip.

@DougRossIsTheBoss

No way will I ever refer to any patient as a customer either. It's not the local garage or the corner shop.

We've had to put up with client and bloody 'service user' in mental health for years. Until it was realised that in fact most patients preferred patient.

"Service user" always makes me think of "drug user", and I end up half-picturing a drop-in centre for heroin addicts.

Client makes me think of a brothel.

Patient is the word for people accessing health care and no other stupid made up words are required

It is a fairly recent trend to call people other than friends by their first name. My first job in 1972 was with Sainsburys, and everyone was called by their surname. Miss Lincslady etc. Just shows how society has eased over the last 50 years. That makes me feel old. We had a visit from the owner, and had to refer to him as Mr JD. He was J D Sainsbury.

The Dr does have the power in a Dr patient relationship. Because of their knowledge and expertise and the societal contract that they are allowed to examine you and hear intimate stuff about you and they undertake not to abuse that and to keep it confidential.

Formality is a guardian of that Dr patient relationship and a good thing not a bad thing. The formality is to make it clear that this is not an every day interaction it is bounded by particular rules especially around confidentiality.

When I am a patient I feel vulnerable too and I do not want any informality to muddy the waters. I absolutely hate to be treated by anyone I know.

Formality is not to 'keep patients in their place'. It's the exact opposite. It's acknowledging the power differential is already there and putting safe boundaries on it.

I call mine by her 1st name. Shes a year older than me and just cannot call her Dr *. And she lives nearby and see each other most days so i just can’t!

There are 5 GPs in the practice and i run with another so i dont call him Dr neither. Wrong!

I’ve had this conversation on another thread recently.

I introduce myself as “Firstname Surname”, or Dr Surname. We are discouraged from using surnames, as some people within trust management believe that Firstnames make patients feel more comfortable. We also do not use Surnames on ID badges in ED because of a number of security incidents involving stalking / harassment / credible threats.

I address patients as “Title Surname” and ask what they would like to be called.

A large proportion of my trauma patients are either unable (too sick) or unwilling (police involvement) to give a name though, so often they get called Alpha Blue or similar. 😊

My personal preference is when I work abroad (humanitarian) and patients are “Title Surname”, and I am “Dr Firstname”.

But that’s just preference and at the end of the day for that professional interaction it’s centred on the patient and not about me, so I’ll put up with most things that aren’t expletives.

@wonkylegs

My DH is a hospital consultant and depending on the patient will introduce himself by his first name, dr first name last name or dr last name. Whatever makes them most comfortable. Older people tend to prefer the latter, many younger ones the former, he doesn't care.

He sounds like a gem!

I've known a few GP's who used their first names because there were other doctors with the same surname.

At one time, each of the three practices in town had a "Dr Smith" (although the actual surname was considerable less common than Smith), so they were each known by their first name, I've also known 2 cases where a husband and wife both worked in the same practice.

The three practices have now merged and we currently have 2 unrelated GP's with the same unusual surname (I think it might be Dutch in origin) and they are both known by their first names.

@Babdoc

I overheard one of my young anaesthetists introduce herself to a nervous old man in the anaesthetic room as “Hi I’m Sally, I’m one of the team”, before putting him to sleep for major surgery. I grabbed her afterwards and gave her an imaginary situation, to try and get her to see it from the patient’s viewpoint. I told her to pretend she was an elderly airline passenger, going on her first ever flight, waiting anxiously for take off. The pilot comes on the intercom for a preflight announcement. Which one, I asked, would reassure her she was in safe hands: A) “Good morning, this is Captain Bloggs, your pilot, speaking. Welcome aboard flight 306 to Malaga.” Or B) “Hi, I’m Sally, one of the team, and I’m gonna fly you to Malaga!” She immediately “got it” - when a patient or passenger is putting their life in your hands, they need to know you are a trustworthy professional, not their mate off Facebook! I further explained that she looks about 15 to the average elderly patient, many of whom would assume she was a nurse, and she therefore needs all the gravitas she can muster. Her professional title is part of that. Also, to maintain detachment and avoid embarrassment, patients should always be addressed as title, surname, especially when expecting them to undress or permit you to carry out intimate examinations and procedures. If they prefer their first name, they can tell me, but it is always best to start with polite formality and respect.

@Babdoc

Also, to maintain detachment and avoid embarrassment, patients should always be addressed as title, surname, especially when expecting them to undress or permit you to carry out intimate examinations and procedures. If they prefer their first name, they can tell me, but it is always best to start with polite formality and respect.

And surnames don't change. The name on my medical records is the one I was born with and one I haven't used for 35 + years. It's a name I loathed and dumped. Most people I know (including close friends) don't know what I used to be called. Being woken up after surgery and being greeted with my 'dead name' was very disconcert. I had no idea who this person leaning over me was talking to.

It's polite. Like calling someone Mrs/Miss/Ms x
You aren't mates with your doctor.

@TheSandman I'm doubly confused.

1. Of course surnames change. I should think the majority of women alive today in the UK have changed their surname at least once. Whereas surely only a tiny minority of people have changed their first names.
2. I don't understand why you haven't had your first name changed on your medical records, if you've not used it in 35 years. Did you not get a deed poll and have it changed elsewhere?

@wonkylegs how does your DH know which the patient will prefer? Surely he can only guess?
Fair play to him for trying to be considerate, though.

I don't know what doctors you know but I've known plenty by first name. I've also known GPs in a practice with same surname who are called, "Dr Sarah", or "Dr John", by patients.

Hospital doctor
I tend to introduce myself as Matilda Crumbleweed, one of the X consultants. I don't usually add the Dr bit. I call patients Mr/Mrs/Ms X.unless invited to use their first name. Most patients refer to me and my colleagues as Dr X or DrY.

You do get the odd patient (usually male) who peppers the consultation with your first name 'so you see Matilda, the pain started ....' in a way that comes across as a bit over familiar, and as if they are trying to make a point. The same type of patient will namedrop my consultant colleagues using their first name 'well when I saw Steve last time, he prescribed'. I try to bite my tongue rather than say 'oh what did Dr Briggs prescribe?'

@RosesAndHellebores

But it isn’t minor when it isn’t you DouglasRossi. It’s about ingrained sexism and a misplaced patriarchal hierarchy that only exists still in medicine.

But I'd call a female Dr Smith, Dr Smith.

And surely not only in medicine.

Hi I’m Sally, I’m one of the team”, before putting him to sleep for major surgery. I grabbed her afterwards and gave her an imaginary situation, to try and get her to see it from the patient’s viewpoint. You know I'm thinking at least she introduced herself! - countless HCP professionals in hospitals don't introduce themselves or ask permission to start prodding you.
I want to know their name (First name Last name) and their job title and I want them to seek permission to prod or put me to sleep.

The doctors at my surgery are all called Dr lastname and, as an older woman, I'm called Mrs or Ms lastname.

The nurses are all called by their first names and generally call the patients by their first names.

All the dentists in the surgery I go to are know by their first names but call the patients by their last names.

It's the same with any vets practises I've been with. All members of staff, including the vets are known by their first names, but they address the pet owners by their last names.

I absolutely cannot abide the awful fashion for calling doctors by their first names but putting Dr in front of it.

The message it gives to me is: you're not on a social par with the doctor so you can't be allowed to call him/her by her first name without using his/her title, but at the same time the doctor wants you to feel he/she is being all chummy with you; it's incredibly infantilising and patronising to the patient.

I can cope with calling you Dr Jones thank you, because I'm a grown up.

The GP's where I work are Dr first name. However some patients refer to them as first name only which I find disrespectful. After all they are your GP not your best friend.

We call one of DS's teachers 'Mrs Surname'. She's DH's cousin

@ikltownofboothlehem

We call one of DS's teachers 'Mrs Surname'. She's DH's cousin

I think 'Mrs Surname' is a lovely name. You don't hear it often :-).

@TroysMammy

The GP's where I work are Dr first name. However some patients refer to them as first name only which I find disrespectful. After all they are your GP not your best friend.

So why use their first names at all if the patents aren't supposed to use them.

I imagine the patients assume that if first names are being used, then first names are acceptable.

Some of the patients probably feel the way I do about it, as I said in my pp above.

And there, in that phrase about power @DougRossIsTheBoss lies the rub.

The NHS is free only at the point of delivery and no Dr or Surgeon can tell me what to do. They have an obligation to present my options and I shall decide providing I have capability.

I am afraid you have no power over me whatsoever because I have choices and can take my illness elsewhere. And yes I can pay in addition to what I pay the NHS - huge amount - for this family.

I am more deeply shocked by the opinion you have just shared than you can probably imagine. You may be a suitably qualified Dr but I would venture that you need to have a little think about precisely who you are if you think you have power. You most certainly do not. You have qualifications and experience that I may chose to use free at the point of delivery. Never would I chose to purchase an attitude that thought they had power over me privately. It is probably a good idea you don't ever do private work with that attitude because I, for one, wouldn't pay your bill duckie in that sort of relationship and I certainly would afford you the level of professional respect you think you deserve.

The professional relationship is about equality and from the provider's and recipient's perspective service. Do remember what the S in NHS used to stand for.