After all these years it’s time to wave goodbye to the illegible and hard to read handwriting of doctors! Call it a myth, joke or a harsh reality but doctors, by and large, are accused of having poor, hard-to-read handwriting skills thereby affecting both the chemist and lives of their patients.
The Union Health Ministry under the Medical Council of India (MCI) regulation is bringing in a gazette notification wherein doctors will now be asked to write prescription in “capital letters” and also mention the “generic names” of the drugs (a drug product that is comparable to a brand/reference listed product in dosage form, strength, quality and performance characteristics, and intended use) prescribed. The gazette notification aims to reduce the confusion and work in the patient’s interest. A clearly written prescription will also enable the chemists from avoiding mistakes while dispensing the medicines.
With patients flooding the doctor’s clinic, it may take a while for the doctors, used to scrawling out the medications, to adjust to the tedious ‘all CAPS’ format of the prescription. But it is a welcome move and expected to work to the general benefit of all. While prescriptions are unclear for some, for some others a wrong medicine or dosage could have life and death implications. The capital letters will be easy to read and understand, eliminating chances of error on the part of the chemist. The patient too will have a complete idea about the drug and dosage prescribed.
“This is a good move by the Ministry and will help both the patients and chemists to read the prescription better and will reduce the amount of errors,” Dr B R Gupta, a Neonatologist, who runs his own clinic, tells Metrolife. “The generic drug name would help the patient get the same drug at a lower price,” he adds.
The patients will now be able to know whether the drug prescribed to them is generic or not because a single drug is offered by at least 10 odd brands. On the same lines Dr P K Gupta, a family physician says, “I think as doctors we should both write the brand and generic name of the medicine prescribed and it should be left in the hands of the patient on what they can afford easily. But sometimes, we’ll definitely recommend going for a certain brand of drug because quality cannot be compromised in some diseases or ailments.”
“The new format is expected to reduce the spelling errors and thereby we can clearly read the prescription. It’ll also solve the problem of the practice of pharmaceutical companies to name a drug after a well-established brand by making a miniscule change in its spelling or branding,” Rajan Kapoor, a pharmacy owner tells Metrolife.
“Apart from the legible, easy to read ‘all CAPS’ prescription, it’ll also save me unnecessary visits to the doctors when a similar illness strikes again as I can look on my own for the medicines that are at my home by just reading the prescription,” Sarita Khaneja, a teacher tells Metrolife.
Instead of introducing the electronic system of e-prescription right now, which can be both time consuming and costly, this new notification has numerous advantages to offer if it is properly implemented. Doctors across the country should also be informed and educated about the same. It’s time for them to practise their handwriting skills too.