After a century and a half of being called Mr, change is in the air, with the president of the Royal College of Surgeons, Hugh Phillips, hinting that the days of Mr and Miss as titles for surgeons may be numbered.

Writing about the public consultation over plans for the introduction of non-medically qualified surgical care practitioners, Mr Phillips says it is important that patients know who's who.

“The issue of job title is part of the public consultation, and this is not easy resolvable,” he says in the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (2005:87(suppl): 153; doi: 10.1308/147363505X45584).

He told the BMJ: “There has been concern recently about who people are in the health service—who is actually treating …