The board has failed to set standards for the use of the medical terms doctor, surgeon and physician, and health practitioners who've long been coveting or improperly using the title Dr have jumped in to claim it. They're chiropractors, and the fact is that Australian-trained chiropractors do not hold a doctorate in chiropractic and they are not medical doctors. They have long been barred in NSW from using the title Dr, and passing themselves off as a medical doctor, but that bar will come to an end, it seems, with the national scheme in July.

Podiatrists, who were known for a long time as chiropodists, have jumped on the free gravy train too, claiming the description of surgeon. Podiatric surgeon, they say. Other therapists are claiming the description physician, which is the term used to describe a doctor with a specialisation in diagnoses.

These health workers are seeking to misappropriate the respect we have for medical doctors, and I suppose they're doing that because they've been unable to earn that respect in their own occupation. Chiropractor association chiefs have explained to me that by using the title Dr they're showing that they have adequate training and doctor-level knowledge, and one was quick to say that podiatrists should not be permitted to use Dr because they were not adequately trained!

It's not only a rort, it sabotages the public's right to clarity in its dealing with health professionals.

Dentists and vets have got away with it, awarding themselves the title of Dr as a courtesy from you to them, and now it looks as though the deception is going to spread further afield. Who next? Psychologists, pharmacists, physiotherapists? Should the title of Dr used to describe an occupation be protected?