CHANDIGARH, September 20— The Haryana Health Department has directed government doctors to write all handwritten prescriptions and diagnoses in capital or bold letters, citing a recent Punjab and Haryana High Court order that flagged illegible medical notes.
In a letter issued to all Civil Surgeons, the state’s Director General of Health Services (DGHS) said the instructions apply only to handwritten prescriptions and will not be required once hospitals adopt computerized or typed records. District health authorities have also been asked to inform private hospitals through the Indian Medical Association.
The move comes after Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri, while hearing an anticipatory bail plea in a rape and forgery case, noted on August 27 that the medico-legal report filed by a government doctor was “not even a word or a letter legible.” The court also pointed to another case where prescriptions and clinical notes were unreadable.
Haryana’s counsel assured the bench that attempts would be made to get the notes deciphered by the same doctor. In an affidavit, the doctor later explained that the woman had been medically examined on February 19, 2024, but her last sexual contact was on December 3, 2023, making it impossible to collect samples. The accused was eventually granted anticipatory bail.
Taking serious note, the court observed: “It is very surprising and shocking to note that in this era of technology and accessibility of computers, the notes on the medical history and on the prescriptions by the government doctors are still written by hand which cannot be read by anybody except perhaps some doctors.”
Following the order, Haryana, Punjab, and Chandigarh administrations told the court that instructions had been issued mandating prescriptions and diagnoses be written in capital letters.
Amicus Curiae Tanu Bedi also highlighted the risks of illegible notes. “Illegible or incomplete prescriptions are a leading cause of medication errors,” she said. “Pharmacists may misinterpret drug names, dosages, routes of administration, frequencies and other medical related opinions, leading to patients receiving wrong medication, incorrect doses or improper instructions prejudicially affecting treatment plan. Such errors can also result in adverse drug reactions, therapeutic failures, prolonged hospital stays, increased healthcare costs and in severe cases even death.”
The DGHS letter noted that similar instructions had already been issued on May 27 and September 18, but reiterated them in view of the court’s remarks.
