In this article we’ll talk about What Google shows when a patient searches your name. Search a UK private consultant’s name and Google usually shows a mix of pages, most of which the consultant doesn’t own: hospital group profiles, review directories, PHIN, the GMC register and sometimes an AI Overview. Most can be claimed or corrected. Some can only be outranked. Your website and Google Business Profile are the two you control directly.
Below, a typical results page for Mr [Name] orthopaedic surgeon is taken from top to bottom, then there’s a checklist for searching yourself. The order varies between searches and devices.
The results page when someone searches your name at a glance
| Element | Where the information comes from | Who controls it | Can you change it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Overview | Pages Google already holds about you | Indirectly, by fixing the sources | |
| Google Business Profile | You, Google and the public | You, once claimed | Yes |
| Knowledge panel | Public information on the web | Suggest edits once verified | |
| Hospital group profiles | You and the hospital | The hospital | Through the hospital |
| Doctify, Top Doctors, iWantGreatCare | You, the directory and patients | The directory | Mostly, once claimed |
| PHIN | Hospitals, plus your own profile and fees | PHIN and the hospitals | Profile and fees, yes. Activity data, through the hospital |
| GMC register | The GMC | The GMC | Your registered details only |
| Your own website | You | You | Yes |
| NHS trust pages | The trust | The trust | By asking the trust |
| You | You | Yes | |
| News and old pages | The publisher | The publisher | Rarely |
| People also ask | Pages across the web | No | |
| Reviews | Patients | Patients and the platform | You can reply and report |
AI Overview
What it is: a generated summary at the top of the page, with links to the pages it drew on. Google shows one when its systems judge it helpful, so it won’t appear for every name search.
Who controls it: Google. It repeats what the pages below it say about you. If a directory lists the wrong hospital, the AI Overview can repeat the error.
What to do: fix the sources underneath, and report inaccurate overviews through the overview’s menu. In a study of 75,000 brands, Ahrefs found that mentions across the web had the strongest link with appearing in AI Overviews, stronger than links. Matching details everywhere count towards that.
Google Business Profile and knowledge panel
What it is: the box with a map, phone number, opening hours and star rating. Google’s guidelines treat doctors as individual practitioners who can have their own profile if they are public-facing and contactable at the verified location. A person-style knowledge panel is a separate box, built automatically from public information.
Who controls it: you, once you’ve claimed the Business Profile. A profile may already exist under your name before you’ve touched it.
What to do: search your name in Google Maps. If a profile exists and is unverified, select Claim this business and verify it. If someone else has verified it, you can request ownership. Check the category, hospitals, phone number and photo. For a knowledge panel, you can get verified and suggest edits, but Google doesn’t let you edit the description.
Hospital group profiles
What it is: your consultant page on Spire, Nuffield Health, Circle Health Group, HCA Healthcare UK or another group. These sites are large and established, so they often rank high for your name.
Who controls it: the hospital. You usually supply the biography and photo. The hospital sets the template and makes the changes.
What to do: open the profile on every hospital you work at and check they agree with each other. Ask whether each one can link to your website. We compare the two in your own website vs a hospital profile page.
Directories: Doctify, Top Doctors and iWantGreatCare
What it is: directory pages with your details, reviews and often a booking button.
Who controls it: the directory, with you able to manage your listing.
- Doctify holds profiles that consultants have not claimed alongside claimed ones, and lets you claim yours and edit it.
- Top Doctors says membership is by invitation, free of charge, with paid marketing services on top. [VERIFY: the FAQ page returned an error when checked, reconfirm wording]
- iWantGreatCare is free for clinicians, with an admin account for responding to and reporting reviews.
What to do: search each site for your name. Claim what already exists, correct the hospitals and specialty, and decide which ones you’ll keep active. We’ll cover the review side in Google reviews vs Doctify.
PHIN
What it is: the Private Healthcare Information Network’s consultant profile, showing your area of expertise, patients treated, average length of stay, patient feedback, fees where available and the hospitals you work at.
Who controls it: split. Most of the data comes from the hospitals. You supply your fees and your profile details, such as education and experience.
What to do: log in to the PHIN portal, complete your profile and fees, and check the activity figures. PHIN asks consultants to review their data and work with PHIN and their hospitals to fix gaps or errors, since the hospital submitted it.
GMC register
What it is: your entry on the medical register, showing whether you hold a licence to practise, whether you’re on the Specialist Register, your registered qualifications and your revalidation details.
Who controls it: the GMC. You keep your own details current through GMC Online. There’s no space for a biography.
What to do: check the name on the register matches the name you use elsewhere, then quote your GMC number on your website so patients can check it.
Your own website
What it is: the one result where you decide every word.
Who controls it: you, as long as your contract confirms you own the domain and content.
What to do: give it a page about you with your full name, specialty, hospitals and GMC number, written the same way as every profile above. Link out to each hospital profile. A new site can take months to rank for your name, so the hospital pages may sit above it for a while. Our SEO and content service builds the pages that help it rank for conditions too.
In my experience: Sam Stratton
What do consultants notice first when they see their own name search laid out element by element?
The results that cause problems are rarely the obvious ones. It’s the directory listing with a hospital the consultant left years ago, or the PHIN profile with no fees filled in. Each one is a short fix. The work is finding them all and making them match.
NHS trust pages
What it is: a consultant listing on your trust’s website, if it has one.
Who controls it: the trust.
What to do: if it lists a role, clinic or title you no longer hold, ask the trust’s web or communications team to update it.
What it is: your LinkedIn profile, which can appear for a name search.
Who controls it: you.
What to do: match the headline to your specialty and hospitals, and add your website link.
News and old results
What it is: press coverage, old practice websites, archived hospital pages and conference listings.
Who controls it: the publisher.
What to do: if a page has already been changed or deleted but Google still shows the old version, use Google’s Remove outdated content tool. If the page is still live, ask the publisher to correct factual errors. Otherwise, accurate current pages ranking above it is the realistic fix.
People also ask
What it is: a box of related questions, each opening to a short answer from a web page. For a name search, the questions are often about the procedure or hospital rather than you.
Who controls it: Google picks the questions and the answers.
What to do: answer the questions patients ask about your procedures on your own website, in plain sentences that work on their own.
Reviews
What it is: star ratings and comments on your Google Business Profile, Doctify, iWantGreatCare and hospital sites.
Who controls it: patients write them. The platform decides what stays up.
What to do: reply where it helps and report reviews that break the platform’s policies. Google lets you reply to and flag reviews once your profile is verified, but not delete them. Replies stay within your duty of confidentiality, set out in the GMC’s guidance on responding to criticism.
Run your own name search
- Open an incognito or private window, so your own search history doesn’t shape the results.
- Search your name with your title and specialty, then again with your main hospital or town.
- Repeat on your phone, where the layout and order are different.
- Search your name in Google Maps.
- Ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot a question such as Who is Mr [Name], orthopaedic surgeon in [city]? and note which sources it names.
- List every result, what’s wrong with it, and who controls it, using the table above.
- Date the list and run it again in six months.
Frequently asked questions
Can I remove my hospital profile from Google?
Only the hospital can take the page down. If it’s inaccurate, ask the hospital to correct it. Once it changes or disappears, Google’s Remove outdated content tool can refresh the old result.
Why does Google show the wrong hospital for me?
Google and AI assistants draw on public pages. If an old directory listing or hospital page still names the hospital, it can surface in your results. Correct the source, then keep your details identical everywhere.
How do I get a knowledge panel for my name?
You can’t request one. Google creates knowledge panels automatically from public information. If one exists, you can get verified and suggest edits through Google.
Can I delete negative Google reviews?
No. You can reply, and you can flag a review that breaks Google’s policies for Google to assess. Any reply must respect patient confidentiality.
Does ChatGPT use the same information as Google?
When AI assistants search the web, they draw on the same public pages: hospital profiles, directories, PHIN and your own website. Accurate, matching details across those pages give them less room to get you wrong.
Want someone to run this search for you? We’ll check your name across Google, Maps and AI assistants, list what’s out of date and who can fix each item, and send you a plain-language summary. It’s an assessment, not a sales call. Request a free audit.