Doctors, regulators call for end to illegible medical prescriptions

Medical experts and health bodies in Telangana are urging doctors to issue clear, legible prescriptions to prevent life-threatening errors. Advocating a shift towards typed and digital prescriptions, they say complete digitisation will ensure accuracy, patient safety, and professional accountability

Hyderabad: The battle against illegible medical prescriptions has intensified in the last few years, as even a minor error could be a matter of a patient’s life and death. Major public health regulatory authorities and doctors’ associations have, in the recent past, raised the need to have well-written medical prescriptions and also the gradual transition to prescriptions that have zero chances of errors.

In fact, Telangana Medical Council (TGMC), Indian Medical Association (IMA) and senior public health specialists in Hyderabad have time and again highlighted the need for the patients and even the pharmacists to have access to a legible medical prescription.

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Noted senior neurologist from Hyderabad and an active voice on public health on X (@hyderabaddoctor), Dr Sudhir Kumar, has consistently highlighted the threat to patient safety. “Illegible handwriting in prescriptions can create serious risks for patients, including receiving the wrong medicine, incorrect dose, or wrong duration of treatment. To ensure patient safety and avoid medication errors, prescriptions must be written clearly and legibly,” he says.

Dr Sudhir has, on multiple occasions, advised doctors on X to embrace typed prescriptions, which reduces misinterpretation.

A powerful, long-term solution lies in complete digitisation. Notably, multiple courts in India have set a two-year deadline for the widespread adoption of e-prescribing (electronic prescriptions). This systemic overhaul is crucial as it removes the element of human handwriting error entirely.

“A legible prescription allows future doctors to easily understand the patient’s treatment history, supporting accurate diagnosis and effective treatment planning,” says Dr Gautam Pasula, senior office bearer of Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA).

Dr Gautam points out that proper handwriting on medical prescriptions also clearly identifies qualified practitioners. Legible prescriptions, especially when written in capital letters, make it easier to distinguish genuine prescriptions written by qualified doctors from those written by quacks or unauthorised individuals who may not even know proper drug names or spellings,” he adds.

Apart from doctors, even bodies representing pharmacists have been raising this issue. A few days ago, the Karnataka State Doctors’ Handwriting Improvement Association (KSDHIA) urged pharmacists across the State to reject any handwritten prescription that violates the NMC’s professional conduct regulations.