Highlights
- Punjab and Haryana High Court say legible prescriptions are a fundamental right.
- Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri found a medico-legal report “completely illegible.”
- Doctors asked to write prescriptions in capital letters until digitisation.
- Indian Medical Association admits the issue but says overcrowding makes it difficult.
- Past cases in India and abroad show fatal consequences of misread prescriptions.
Court Declares Legible Prescription a “Fundamental Right”
The Punjab and Haryana High Court have ordered doctors to fix their handwriting, saying that a legible medical prescription is a fundamental right because it can make the difference between life and death.
Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri said he was shocked after reading an incomprehensible medico-legal report prepared by a government doctor.
He wrote in his order:
“It shook the conscience of this court as not even a word or a letter was legible.”
Why the Order Came
The case itself was not directly about prescriptions. It involved allegations of rape, cheating, and forgery. However, when Justice Puri reviewed the medical report, he found the handwriting impossible to read.
He criticised doctors for still writing prescriptions by hand despite easy access to technology.
“At a time when technology and computers are easily accessible, it is shocking that government doctors are still writing prescriptions by hand which cannot be read by anybody except perhaps some chemists.”
Court’s Instructions
- Medical schools must teach handwriting lessons to doctors.
- Government should move to digital prescriptions within two years.
- Until then, doctors must write in bold and capital letters so patients and pharmacists can read.
ব্যবসায়ী, ক্যারিয়ার বিল্ডার বা মার্কেটার—সবার জন্য এক রোডম্যাপ ! ক্লিক করুন এখানে…
Doctors Respond
Dr. Dilip Bhanushali, President of the Indian Medical Association, admitted that bad handwriting among doctors is common.
He said overcrowded hospitals make it difficult to write neatly:
“A doctor who sees seven patients a day can do it, but if you see 70 patients a day, you can’t do it.”
Past Warnings and Risks
This is not the first time Indian courts have raised concerns.
- Odisha High Court and Allahabad High Court previously flagged illegible medical reports.
- Studies show misreading prescriptions can cause serious harm or even death.
For example, the Institute of Medicine (1999) reported that in the US, 7,000 deaths annually were linked to sloppy handwriting in prescriptions.
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Examples of Tragic Outcomes
- In the UK, a woman suffered chemical injuries after receiving erectile dysfunction cream instead of eye medicine.
- In India, a patient once suffered convulsions after being given the wrong drug with a similar name.
- A public interest petition was filed in Hyderabad after a three-year-old child died from a wrong injection.
Since 2016, the Medical Council of India has ordered doctors to write in generic names and in capital letters. But pharmacists say illegible prescriptions still reach them regularly.
Current Situation
Pharmacies in cities now see more printed prescriptions, but in suburban and rural areas, handwritten notes remain common.
Ravindra Khandelwal, CEO of a large pharmacy chain in Kolkata, said sometimes they still have to call doctors directly to confirm unclear prescriptions because giving the wrong medicine can be fatal.
Source: BBC News
