Pharmacists to approach Central govt for repeated directive to doctors to write prescriptions in capital letters
Chennai, July 30, 2022:
In the wake of the unyielding stance of the doctors in changing the way of writing medical prescriptions from scribbling format to comprehensible style using capital letters, pharmacists across the country are now planning to write to the Union health ministry for a repeated direction to the medical community for compliance of the previous directives issued by the government and the MCI.
On account of increased number of complaints about inability to read prescriptions due to bad handwriting and holding of social media discussions by pharmacists countrywide, Pharmabiz has carried out a national survey among the working pharmacists on their capacity to read and comprehend medical prescriptions given by doctors.
In the survey it was found that no pharmacist, whether experienced or highly qualified one, is able to fully understand the names of all medicines the doctor write. Out of every three names, mostly brand names, one name is found illegible and it has to be taken back to the doctor or to somebody else in the pharmacy for clear reading.
The survey has found that most of the dispensers want prescriptions in printed forms or written in capital letters. A common demand is that doctors should avoid writing brand names, instead they should write the generic name in capital letters.
Sarah Zothansangi Khiangte, a working pharmacist in Aizwal in Mizoram, while responding to the queries, said the dispensers in Mizoram face difficulty in understanding the doctors’ handwriting. She said since the number of pharmaceutical companies is increasing, the number of brand names is also increasing. The medical representatives or marketers brief the doctors about their new brands and the names. There is hardly any chance for the pharmacists to learn about the new brands, similarly the patients too. In such situations, if a doctor prescribes a new brand, and that too in scribbled format, the pharmacist will have difficulty reading it. The poor patient will have to go to different pharmacies in different places searching for the new brand prescribed by the doctor, but nobody may know about it. But, sometimes the same molecule may be available in all the medical shops in its generic names. She said giving medical prescriptions in generic names should be made mandatory as it is helpful for the patients.
Prasanth Kumar Rath, vice president of the Utkal (Odisha) Chemists and Druggists Association (UCDA) has responded that some doctors in Odisha write only in the conventional mode of scribbling. This puts the pharmacists in trouble most often. Considering the patients’ safety, it is high time the doctors started writing the prescriptions in capital letters. If the handwriting is incomprehensible, there is a chance for substituting medicines to patients. He said some doctors are very adamant and they will not change their attitude.
Anup Ambone, a medical store pharmacist at Saraswathi Nagar in Nagpur said there should be legislation with respect to prescription writing that the doctors must mention the name of the molecules along with the brand names.
Selvakumar Pandyan from Cuddalur in Tamil Nadu has also commented that printed form of prescriptions is the only way-out for smooth dispensing of prescribed drugs. He said in certain pharmacies in the community, medicines are dispensed by non-pharmacist people who do not understand what the doctors have written on the paper.
The internet chatting and smartphones are blessings to the pharmacy people as, when they face difficulty in reading the drug names, the pharmacists take the photocopies of the prescriptions and share them with social media platforms for reading the names and understanding the molecules. One pharmacist from the north east, in anonymity said, even some doctors do not know the basic active ingredients of some new brands. Those brands are sometimes prescribed in higher doses than the actual daily dose, he alleged. Pharmabiz