Why are specialists called mr

Instead, they accompanied a surgeon or groups of surgeons. Then after some years, an exam was conducted under the supervision of highly trained surgeons or college of surgeons. The individual who passed the exam was called Mister because of the diploma achieved, if a degree instead of diploma was achieved by the successful individuals then they will be called as Doctors. So we can say that the trend of calling diploma holder surgeons of nineteenth century mister instead of doctor has not gone with nineteenth century.

Though, today all surgeons obtain their degrees from well-known educational institutes but still they are called mister, miss, or Mrs. In fact, this is the main reason behind calling Surgeons misters. All surgeons must first qualify as doctors, so they will have a basic knowledge about medicines and surgery. Don't call me Mr - surgeons move to axe title.

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Modern surgeons have completed many years of training following successfully completing a medical degree at university. Some patients have raised concerns such as:. With the use of the terms Mr, Mrs, Miss, Dr, Professor etc it is not always absolutely clear to the patient whether someone is a doctor or not. Unless we get precise about it, no one will know who anyone is any more.

But if non-medically qualified practitioners are doing components of operations we need to know who the doctors are.

Some academics argue that the title "Dr" should be reserved for holders of doctorates who have done original research such as John Reid, the Secretary of State for Health, who is not a medical doctor but has a PhD in economic history.

One consultant physician said: "The way surgeons have stuck to 'Mr' and 'Miss' has been a form of inverted snobbery for years. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

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