How do you address your doctor?

S

Staples

Registered User
Messages
786
I normally address my doctor by his first name. He's about my own age and I'd feel a bit odd calling him "Doctor". My sister is more traditional about these things and thinks people, including doctors, should be addressed by their title until and unless patients invited to do otherwise.

What do people think? Personally, I thought that level of formaility had gone.
 
When I am buying goods or services if someone used my first name I use his or her first name.
 
What about these cold-phone-calls where the never before spoken to rep from company xyz comes on the phone looking for "firstname". That bugs the life out of me. Fair enough after initial contact but am I alone in thinking this is overfamiliar for someone one has never met?
 

Yep, when I'm the seller I stay formal 'till asked or told to use first names.
 
I call my GP by her first name (at her invitation), my physio Dr Xyz, and my consultant Mr Xyz (but I was actually planning on asking him should I address him Mr, Dr or other).

I tend to address people formally unless invited to do otherwise.
 
truthseeker said:
I call my GP by her first name (at her invitation), my physio Dr Xyz, and my consultant Mr Xyz (but I was actually planning on asking him should I address him Mr, Dr or other).

I tend to address people formally unless invited to do otherwise.
Click to expand...

Do they call you by your first name?
 
Gp - yes.
Physio - she generally doesnt use my name but says things like 'great girl', 'good woman' - she's very jolly hockey sticks
Consultant - I dont think he has called me anything.
 
Have always called my doctor by his first name. As it happens, he introduced himself that way as far as I remember.
 
Consultants in hospitals usually like to be referred to as Mr or Dr but more junior doctors prefer to be addressed by their first names and introduce themselves that way. Paramedical staff in the hospital do the same, calling registrars and SHOs by their first names and consultants by their titles.

Not so sure about GPs, each one different I suppose.
 
First name only. I wouldn't be comfortable calling anyone who is providing a service to me as Mr or Mrs
 
Off point, but why are consultants addressed as Mr / Ms / Mrs etc? Is it purely to show seniority?
 
Complainer said:
First name only. I wouldn't be comfortable calling anyone who is providing a service to me as Mr or Mrs
Click to expand...

Personally I feel I can show respect to any one I deal with, whether they are providing a service to me or not.

I don't have an issue with calling a person by their title but when people do I think its an inferiority thing.
 
Vanilla said:
Personally I feel I can show respect to any one I deal with, whether they are providing a service to me or not.

I don't have an issue with calling a person by their title but when people do I think its an inferiority thing.
Click to expand...
Oh enough of the clever legal nitpicking and amatuer psychoanalysis. I can show respect to anyone I deal with, whether they are providing a service to me or not. Please don't try to imply otherwise. I don't need to address somebody as Mr or Mrs to show respect.
 
Consultant physicians are called doctor, only consultant surgeons go by Mr, Mrs,or Ms.
 
Brianne said:
Consultant physicians are called doctor, only consultant surgeons go by Mr, Mrs,or Ms.
Click to expand...

Anyone who has done their fellowship exams and thus become a fellow of the royal college of surgeons call themselves Mr. Most surgical registrars would be Mr and occasionally the odd SHO manages to finish the exams before being promoted to registrar. All physicians are Dr.
 
Surgeons don't use the title doctor because for many years they were not doctors. Surgery used to be carried out by barbers (hence the red and white pole which denotes bloody bandages). Barbers were the guys with the sharpest knives and surgery used to involve removing limbs. The quicker the surgeon was the less the chance the patient would die of shock and/or blood loss.

As for the inferiority complex thing, I think it has more to do with equality. If a doctor wants to call me Mr then I will call him/her doctor. I do not think that it is appropriate that one person should use formal title and the other not.
Maybe it goes back to school when teachers were Mr./Ms. and the children were "you" .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register