Comfort level and first names

This doctor-as-patient doesn’t feel comfortable when his physician calls him by his first name:

I like calling patients by their surnames. To my mind, it gives an immediate message of respect and also helps keep a suitable emotional distance – both for me and them.

It occurs to me that we’ve mistaken being caring for being intimate. But as I discovered, when your trousers are round your ankles, you don’t want your doctor to be any more intimate than is necessary.