Chennai
A doctor’s handwriting has been the butt of all jokes for decades now. But their tendency for acute illegibility has risen to such an extent now that the Tamil Nadu Medical Council (TNMC) passed a set of regulations two weeks ago to pre-empt the possibility of any patient guessing the medicine’s name when going to the pharmacy – and thereby inducing a whole set of other unforeseen medical complications. From now on, all doctors must write down a drug’s name, preferably in its generic form, in capital letters on the prescription which must carry their name, qualification, registration number and the address and telephone number of the hospital or clinic that they are attached to. Also, sufficient space should be provided for the pharmacist to fill his name, name of the pharmacy and the date on which the medicines were issued. Illegibility of the prescription itself may cause a mix-up in the drugs consumed by the patient.
Doctors and pharmacists welcomed the move. “It is always better to write the prescription legibly as this will end all chances of pharmacists getting confused and patients too. I feel that printed prescriptions are always safer to hand out. All doctors are supposed to triplicate the prescription. We must retain one copy, pharmacists the second and the final copy must be given to the patient. This is the norm, but sadly it is not practised anywhere,” says Dr Sivaramkannan, senior assistant professor of general medicine at Madras Medical College.
On the other hand, doctors feel that equal importance should be given to the presence of their registration number, and a pharmacist’s seal, carrying the date of issue of the medicines. “A doctor’s registration number is very unique and helps in identifying the authenticity of the practitioner. These regulations will put a stop to quacks, who are mostly prevalent in the rural areas. Also, doctors who continue to practice after the cancellation of their licenses will be caught,” said Dr Murali Narasimhan, associate professor of dermatology at SRM Medical College.
Pharmacists feel that the registration number will not curb the pervasiveness of fake doctors, but the date of issue of the medicines will stop patients from reusing the same prescription. “The registration number cannot be cross-checked by pharmacists as they have information only about a few doctors stored in their computers.
To avoid spending more money on doctors’ fees, patients reuse the prescriptions which will ultimately harm them as their bodies may have become resistant to that drug. So now if that prescription carries the seal of one pharmacy, the next store will refuse to give them the drugs,” said Dr Muthuraman Karuppiah, proprietor of Karuppiah Pharmacies. Also now that the generic name of the drug will be required to be mentioned instead of the brand’s, pharmacists point out that their investment will reduce considerably. Sundaram from Sanjeev Pharmacy says, “I don’t have to buy drugs from many companies. Also, the patient gets the benefit of choosing the drug according to what they can afford. Now the drug will be called paracetamol, and not Crocin, giving us pharmacists a chance to buy drugs only from two or three companies,” he said.
Maybe all those handwriting lessons of childhood had a point for dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s never seemed more important: they seem to be an antidote by themselves.
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