Issue circular to write prescription clearly
High Court asks health ministry
The High Court yesterday directed the Health Ministry to issue a circular within 30 days asking physicians to write their prescriptions clearly so that the names of the medicines can be understood easily. The HC also asked the health secretary and registrar of the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council to submit a report before it within six weeks after complying with the HC order. In response to a public interest litigation (PIL), the HC bench comprising Justice Naima Haider and Justice Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman also issued a rule asking the government to explain within four weeks why it should not be directed to take effective steps to issue prescription for the patient in capital letters or offer a printed copy to patients. Doctors can write in block letters or print the prescriptions so that there is no hassle in understanding the document, the HC bench said.
The Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) filed the petition with the HC on January 2 following a report published in a Bangla daily on December 17 last year under the headline Patients are in risk of taking wrong medicines that said poor and illegible handwriting on prescriptions creates problem for patients. During the hearing, Advocate Manzill Murshid, counsel for the petitioner, told the court that many doctors write the name of medicine on the prescription in such a manner that the patient and pharmacy staff cannot understand them properly. He also said that illegible handwriting on prescriptions given by most of the practicing doctors leads to the patients taking different drugs or medicines, which ultimately affect the life of the common people.
Sometimes, even the drug sellers cannot read the handwriting of some doctors. This frequently happened when someone tries to buy medicines with the prescription of a doctor who does not practice in that particular area of the drug store, he added.
