Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, says that doctors need job titles that give them “the respect they deserve”

The label “junior doctor” faces banishment from the NHS after the country’s head medic backed a campaign to change job titles that have been condemned as confusing and demeaning.

Ministers and NHS training chiefs are considering an end to the use of terms such as “trainee” and “junior” to describe qualified doctors who often have a decade of experience, The Times has learnt.

Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, said that doctors needed job titles that give them “the respect they deserve”.

She is supporting a campaign to rename doctors below consultant level that will be launched today by Oxford University academics.

They argue that junior doctor is a “discriminatory and belittling” term and urge a return to senior house officer and registrar, which