The Indian Court informs the doctors to repair the handwriting

While most people use keyboards to write, is handwriting really important?

Yes, Indian courts say, if the writer is a doctor.

Jokes about the reputable handwritten writing of many doctors that can only be dismantled by pharmacists are common in India, as around the world. But the last thing that emphasizes the importance of the clear handwriting recently came from the Punjab and Harrana Supreme Court, which said that “the readable prescription is a basic right” because it can make a difference between life and death.

The court’s order came in a case that has nothing to do with the written word. This included allegations of rape, cheating and forgery by a woman, Jasgorberrett Singhi Buri was hearing the man’s contact with the guarantee.

The woman claimed that the man had taken money from her promise to work, conducted fake interviews with her and sexually exploited her.

The accused denied the charges – he said they had a relationship with mutual consent and the case was filed due to a dispute over money.

Judge Buri said when he looked at the Medico -Legal report – written by a government doctor who examined the woman – he found it incomprehensible.

He wrote on the matter: “The conscience of this court has rocked it as not a readable word or message.”

The BBC witnessed a copy of the ruling, which includes a two -page medical prescription that shows a non -readable doctor.

Judge Buri wrote: “While technology and computers can easily be accessed, government doctors are still writing medical prescriptions that cannot be read by anyone except for some chemists,” Judge Buri wrote.

The court asked the government to include handwriting lessons in the curriculum of the Faculty of Medicine and set a two -year timetable to launch digital prescriptions.

Judge Buri said that until this happens, all doctors must clear medical prescriptions in capital messages.

Dr. Dilip Bahnoshi, head of the Indian Medical Association, who has more than 330,000 doctors as members, told the BBC that they are ready to help find a solution to the problem.

In the largest cities and towns, he says, doctors moved to digital recipes, but it is very difficult in rural areas and small towns to obtain clear recipes.

“It is a known fact that many doctors have weak handwritten, but that is because most medical practitioners are very busy, especially in crowded government hospitals,” he says.

He added, “We recommended to our members to follow government guidance and write medical prescriptions in bold letters that must be read to both patients and chemists.

This is not the first time that the Indian court has launched the dirty handwriting of doctors. Previous cases include the Supreme Court in Odisha State A mark has been placed “The method of wiping in writing by the doctors” and the judges in the court of God the Supreme Court Piercing On “the reports written in the dilapidated handwriting that they are not indifferent.”

Studies, however, have Support The traditional wisdom that the hand of doctors wrote worse than others.

But experts say that focusing on the handwriting is not related to beauty or comfort. Rather, the prescription that leaves a field of ambiguity or bad interpretation can have serious consequences.

According to 1999 a report By the Institute of Medicine (IOM), medical errors caused at least an estimated 44,000 deaths that can be prevented annually in the United States, 7,000 of which are due to a dirty handwriting.

Recently, in Scotland a woman He suffered from chemical injuries After I was given an erectile dysfunction error to the state of dry eye.

The health authorities in the United Kingdom admitted that “drug errors have caused horrific levels of damage and deaths,” and added that “offering electronic description systems through more hospitals may reduce errors by 50 %.”

India does not have strong data on the damage caused by poor handwriting, but in the most countries that control medical prescriptions in the world have led to health emergencies and many deaths.

there This condition is very reported From a woman who suffered from cramps after taking a drug for diabetes, which had a similar sounding name to a prescribed residence.

In 2014, Chilukuri, who runs a pharmacy in the city of Niljonda, said that in 2014, he presented a petition for the general specifications of the Supreme Court in Hyderabad after reading news reports of a three -year -old young man in the city of Nuwaida after he managed a wrong surgery.

His campaign, which is seeking a complete ban on handwritten recipes, is fruits in 2016, the Medical Council in India ordered that “every doctor must prescribe medicines with public names and preferred in capital messages.”

In 2020, the Minister of Health of India Ashwini Kumar Shui told Parliament that the medical authorities in the states “have been enabled to take disciplinary action against the doctor to violate the matter.”

But after nearly a decade has passed, Mr. Chilukuri and other pharmacists say that the recipes are badly written to reach their stores. Mr. Chilukuri BBC has sent a number of recipes he had seen over the past few years that he could not even decipher his symbols.

Ravenra Khandloual, CEO of Dhanwantary – one of the best well -known pharmacies in Kolkata with 28 branches covering cities, towns and villages in the West Bengal state and serving more than 4000 customers per day – sometimes says medical prescriptions that come to the illegal borders.

“Over the years, we have seen a handwritten transformation to the recipes printed in cities, but in areas in the suburbs and rural, most of them are still written in hand.”

He says that his experienced employees and the ability to decipher, most of them, to ensure that customers get the appropriate medicine.

“Nevertheless, sometimes we have to contact doctors because it is very important for us to resume the right medicine.”

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