I mostly agree. In the hierarchy of humans doctors are not some sort of extra special entity worthy of worship, but in their professional environment their title has more significance that mine (Ms) does.
That doesn’t mean that doctors should default to patient’s first name though (it’s a jarring mismatch in etiquette for starters)!
Using a patient’s title is somewhat context specific as a GP can get through a 5-10 min slot politely and respectfully without needing to use a name at all (nor the patient needing to use the doctor’s name/title during the appointment) but an outpatient procedure or an overnight stay should definitely have a ‘would you prefer I call you Title Surname or something else?’ conversation.
No need to remember with multiple inpatients as it can go on the wall above/beside the bed.
I personally like the whiteboard signs that have patient name, consultant name, nurse-for-the-shift name because then everything is clear and easily glanced at in the moment (although I realise that gives the nurses have an extra job of updating the sign each shift so I don’t hold it against them when they forget!)
Adding pronouns as well is an unnecessary additional layer of information and actually decreases understanding for patients with literacy difficulties or English as a second language, as well as creating the potential for distrust/doubt/hostility/awkward situations (when someone accidentally intuitively reverts to sex based pronouns).
Pronoun displays are of no real use to anyone, including transgender people (who could use titles to indicate similar information).
The display of ’Personal Pronouns’ with a/slash, whatever the original intent, has become symbolic of a controversial belief system.
Most English speaking people are well aware that ‘She’ ‘Her’ ‘Hers’ ‘Herself’ are a set (even if they can’t identify them as subject/object/possessive/reflective) and we generally don’t mind those with ESL cocking it up a bit, letting wrong-forms pass without comment (unless it’s in a language lesson).
So what is the reason for the slash to appear on a badge or in an email signature?
The only practical explanation that I can come up with is that including the slash creates the possibility of a single person with multiple preferred pronouns eg she/they (which should really be she/them if we are using the slash to indicate subject/object consistently) or to explain unfamiliar neopronouns eg xir/xim (in which case it should be the whole set xe/xir/xem/xier/xierself, example found via Google)!
Personally, I hate the current pronoun dance, which I see a top-down imposition of someone else’s belief system (as in the OP if this thread) but I have no issue whatsoever with the addition of the Mx title to the existing Ms/Miss/Mrs/Mr selection.
That one feels like more of a grass roots request for a simple adaption to an existing system, as Ms was back in it’s early days.