Indian Court Orders Doctors to Fix Their Handwriting

In an age where most people use keyboards, the question arises: does handwriting still matter? According to Indian courts, especially when it comes to doctors, the answer is yes.

Indian courts have addressed the issue of doctors’ notoriously poor handwriting, which is often joked about for being unreadable—except by pharmacists. Recently, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stated that “legible medical prescription is a fundamental right,” highlighting that clear handwriting can be a matter of life and death.

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The court’s ruling came during a case involving serious allegations against a man, including rape and forgery. Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri noted that the medical report from a government doctor was completely illegible. He expressed his concern, stating that not a single word was readable.

“It is shocking that government doctors are still writing prescriptions that no one can read,” Justice Puri remarked. The court has asked the government to implement handwriting lessons in medical schools and set a two-year deadline for transitioning to digital prescriptions. Meanwhile, all doctors must write prescriptions in clear capital letters.

Dr. Dilip Bhanushali, president of the Indian Medical Association, acknowledged the issue, saying that while urban doctors are increasingly using digital prescriptions, rural areas still struggle with poor handwriting. He emphasized the need for doctors to follow government guidelines to ensure prescriptions are clear for both patients and pharmacists.

Experts warn that unclear prescriptions can lead to serious medical errors. A 1999 report in the U.S. estimated that sloppy handwriting contributed to 7,000 preventable deaths annually.

In one case in Scotland, a woman suffered injuries due to receiving the wrong medication because of an unclear prescription.

In India, there have been past instances where poor handwriting led to health emergencies. A notable case involved a woman who suffered convulsions after receiving a medication with a similar name to her prescribed drug, BBC reports.

Pharmacists, like Chilukuri Paramathama from Telangana, have long campaigned for better handwriting in prescriptions. Although there have been orders to promote legible prescriptions, many still receive illegible ones.

Ravindra Khandelwal, CEO of a well-known pharmacy in Kolkata, noted that while urban areas are moving towards printed prescriptions, rural areas continue to rely heavily on handwritten ones, which can often be difficult to read.

The push for clearer handwriting in medical prescriptions highlights an important issue in healthcare, aiming to prevent potentially tragic mistakes in patient treatment.