All surgeons in South Australia encouraged by their college from 2021 to use 'Dr' title instead of gendered 'Mr'
The "Mr" title for surgeons had not been used at Flinders Medical Centre, in Adelaide's southern suburbs, since the hospital's inception in 1976.
Surgeons in South Australia were encouraged from 2021 to no longer use the gender-based titles “Mr”, “Mrs” or “Ms” and instead all be referred to as “Dr”.
Their peak body, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, decided to phase out the titles in favour of Dr (with academic titles such as professor to stay), after a push by the Women’s and Children’s Health Network in Adelaide. In a proposal from the network, plastic surgeons Dr Anthony Porter and Dr Amy Jeeves and consultant Claire Parkinson, said all female surgeons in South Australia were referred to as “Dr” while male surgeons were called “Mr” in two thirds of cases. They noted that “surgery is the only profession that continues to use these confusing gendered titles”.
Dr Porter welcomed the college move and urged the state government’s SA Health department to adopt it state-wide. “Patients will find our titles less confusing as we are all doctor now,” Dr Porter said. “It also ends the perception that surgeons are somehow superior to other specialties.”
Dr Christine Lai, chair of the college of surgeons’ fellowship services committee and based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, said using Mr for surgeons dated back to the 18th century. “Surgery is the only profession that continues to use gendered titles in Australia and New Zealand,” she said. “Gendered titles can be confusing for patients because they create the perception that Dr X and Mr Y have different qualifications, despite both being surgeons”.
A college statement says gendered titles created power and status differences between surgeons and other medical professionals; male and female surgeons; and married and unmarried women.
Southern Adelaide Local Health Network director of Surgery and Perioperative Medicine, Professor Robert Padbury, said the title had not been used in the south for about 45 years. “We have not used the Mr designation at Flinders Medical Centre from its inception in 1976,” he said. “We have regarded it as archaic and quite absurd.”
Australian Medical Association's Suth Australian president Dr Michelle Atchison said gendered titles were outdated and sexist: “It is a practice that should have been abandoned years ago.”