This is with reference to the article “When doctor's prescription becomes injurious to health!” (Open Page, March 27). It is true that most doctors write prescriptions that no one other than them and their pharmacists can decipher. As the contents of the prescription are illegible, the patient is not sure of getting the right drugs.
The Medical Council of India and the Indian Medical Association have for long stressed the importance of legible prescriptions for the benefit of patients as well as for avoiding legal issues. But it is unfortunate that in spite of guidelines to doctors from professional organisations, many do not bother to write a neat and legible prescription.
J.P. Reddy,Nalgonda
A wag defined ‘illegibility' as a prescription written by a doctor from the back seat of a second-hand jalopy travelling on a pot-filled village kutcha road with a post office pen (gone are the days when post offices offered a pen with a nib like a cobra's tongue, an ink bottle and a semisolid gum in a bottle!).
There is another incident of how a mother took a letter written by her doctor son to a druggist for deciphering. The chemist had one look at it, went inside and promptly returned with a bagful of medicines saying: “That will be five hundred rupees, ma'am.” Along with the Hippocratic oath, doctors should be forced to take another oath — that they will write legibly.
R. Ramachandra Rao,Hyderabad
Dr. G. Ramanujam's account was lively, informative and even revealing. The handwritten prescription of my father Dr. N. Natesan was impeccable. His brother, Dr. T.V. Venkatesan, used to dictate his prescriptions, get them typed and sign them after checking.
Between them, my father and uncle used to share a joke about an aspiring medical student who was refused admission because his handwriting was good.
N. Dharmeshwaran,Chennai
