Use of medical titles by non-doctors misleads patients, finds survey
BMJ 2011; 343 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d5028 (Published 06 August 2011) Cite this as: BMJ 2011;343:d5028
The use of medical job titles by allied healthcare professionals who are not doctors confuses patients, a survey of more than 500 users of the BMJ’s website has found.
More than four fifths (83%) of the 533 individuals who took part in the online poll agreed that the use of titles such as “consultant” and “surgeon” by non-doctors misleads patients, with 17% disagreeing.
The increasingly widespread use of doctors’ titles by non-medical professionals in clinical settings, such as “consultant podiatric surgeon,” is a “serious concern,” said the London doctors Waseem Jerjes and Tahwinder Upile in a comment on the issue (BMJ 2011;343:d4241, doi:10.1136/bmj.d4241).
The BMA’s Central Consultants and Specialists Committee has likewise raised concerns over the way in which non-medically qualified staff describe themselves, and earlier this year the committee met the Department of Health and the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence to discuss the issue.