Doctor's obligation to write prescriptions legibly

The High Court has made it mandatory for physicians to write prescriptions for patients either in capital letters or in print. However, it is unfortunate that the directive does not seem to be in practice anywhere in Bangladesh. If we look around, we will find no physician writing prescriptions in block letters. They are still using clumsy, and unreadable handwriting. Their handwriting is sometimes so incomprehensible that the patients or their attendants need to visit the physicians or their assistants again. Some of these doctors writes so badly that even drug store employees struggle to understand their writing. There remains a high chance of taking wrong medicine if the writing on the prescription is not clear.

According to a study by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), around 7,000 patients die each year in the world simply because they do not understand the handwriting of prescriptions and take wrong medicine. The World Health Organization clearly said that badly handwritten prescriptions can lead to mistakes, and it is the legal duty of the doctors to write legibly. We urge the authorities concerned to address this issue seriously so that patients no longer need to suffer, and prescriptions become fully comprehensible. All our physicians must also realise that a medical prescription should not leave any room for ambiguity because it is a matter of life and death for the patients.

Ashikujaman Syed,

Research Assistant,

Center for Research Innovation and Development (CRID),

syedashikujaman@yahoo.com