Patients at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, Chandigarh, will no longer struggle to decipher their prescriptions.
In compliance with the directions of the Supreme Court of India and as per the guidelines issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC), Prof G P Thami, Director-Principal of GMCH, has issued strict instructions to all medical practitioners working in the institution to prescribe medicines either in legible capital letters or through computerised printouts. All doctors have been directed to adhere to this mandate with immediate effect, and heads of departments have also been instructed to ensure strict compliance across all departments. The move is a result of growing concerns over illegible handwriting on prescriptions, a longstanding issue that has often led to confusion, wrong dispensing of medicines, and, in some cases, adverse health outcomes for patients.
As per a senior doctor here, the reform is a step towards prioritising patient safety, with many patients and their families often complaining that prescriptions were difficult to read, while chemists often guess what exactly was prescribed. “That guessing game is now over,” the official added.
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In a recent judgment, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruled that a legible medical prescription is a fundamental right. In his order, Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri had observed, “It is very surprising and shocking to note that in this era of technology and accessibility of computers, the notes on the medical history and on the prescriptions by the government doctors are still written by hand, which cannot be read by anybody except perhaps some chemists.”
Framing the issue as whether legible prescriptions and diagnoses are part of the Right to Health, the court stressed: “The importance of legible and preferably digital/typed medical prescription has become important and indispensable, especially in the present era of technological advancement where every information is accessible and available by a click on a screen…The problem of illegible handwriting creates a gap, resulting in inefficiencies and further limits the potential benefits of digital health innovations.”
In the push towards legible handwriting and digitisation, Justice Puri passed several directions, including that Punjab, Haryana, and UT Chandigarh must ensure handwritten prescriptions are in capital letters until computerisation, and PGIMER shall implement its HIS-II e-prescription system within two years.
While the GMCH decision has been widely welcomed, its success will depend on implementation, upgradation of technology, digitisation for computerised prescriptions, and adaptation by doctors. At GMSH-16, work is on for an upgraded and high-tech network system, as part of which, reports will be sent to patients’ phone numbers or emails, reducing the footfall, waiting time of patients and easing the process, explains Dr Suman Singh, Director, Health Services. The pilot project has already been completed in all 48 Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (upgraded Health and Wellness Centres), under the Ayushman Bharat Initiative, with all going paperless in phases. To improve efficiency, the prescription given by the doctor on the computer will also be sent to the pharmacist directly, who will then dispense the medicine and provide the patient with a slip of the same.