Telangana: Prescribe in capital letters, doctors told

Hyderabad: From July, doctors’ prescriptions will have to be written in capital letters at hospitals certified by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals.

If the prescriptions are not in capital, the accreditation of the hospital might get affected, said sources in the Indian Medical Association. A senior doctor of IMA said on condition of anonymity, “The linking of accreditation with capital letters was found to be a way to ensure that this rule is strictly followed. There was general advice from the IMA since the last two years, but it is not being followed.”

1.5 lakh suffered due to wrong drug in Hyderabad

More than 30 super-speciality hospitals in the city have the accreditation. In 2015, it was estimated that 1.5 lakh people suffered from complications as pharmacists gave wrong medicines as they could not understand the doctors’ handwriting.

Dr Sunil Khetarpai, member of the annual medico-legal review said, “There is no proper data collection in India but the figure was estimated from the records from various accredited hospitals. In-patients who came back with complications insisted that they took the medicines but on scrutiny it was found that they were given wrong medicines. This has led to the move of writing prescriptions in capital letters so that patients as well as pharmacists can clearly understand the name of the medicine.”

While city general physicians ask patients to take the medicines and re-verify it with the doctor, the same is not possible for super specialists who see more than 100 patients every day in hospitals.

Dr J. Jyostna, a senior general surgeon said, “It is very difficult in super-specialty hospitals to verify whether each out-patient or discharged patient has got the right medicines. To avoid this problem it is important to follow the printed format where there is no option but to write in capital letters.”