E-Paper
Uttarakhand high court asks doctors to issue computer-generated prescriptions
The Uttarakhand high court has directed all doctors, whether in the government sector, public sector or private clinics, to give computer-generated prescriptions and not handwritten ones so that patients and their attendants understand them.
Reading a doctor’s prescription has always been a challenge for the common man. Not anymore in Uttarakhand. The high court at Nanital has directed all doctors, whether in the government sector, public sector or private clinics, to give computer-generated prescriptions in order to enable ordinary patients and their attendants understand the same.
The court also directed the state government to provide “necessary infrastructure to the Government Medical Officers i.e. computers and printers within a reasonable period” so that they could issue the printed prescriptions.
The court issued the directions after the matter surfaced during the arguments in a case that many a time patients or their attendants are unable to understand the handwriting of doctors and other medical practitioners, said Atul Kumar Bansal, counsel for the petitioner in the case.
The high court division bench comprising acting chief justice Rajiv Sharma and justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari issued the directions while hearing a review petition with regard to its August 14 order, filed by the authorities at a Jolly Grant based hospital in Dehradun, said Bansal.
In the August 14 order, the court directed the state doctors to prescribe only generic medicines and not force patients to buy branded medicines. Through the review petition the hospital authorities pleaded before the court that the government doctors in the state too have to prescribe only generic medicines.
The court, however, dismissed the review application, stating, “We do not find any error apparent on the face of the record”.
Earlier, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the court by Ahmad Nabi on August 14 in 2016. The PIL alleged that two hospitals — BD Hospital Doraha Bazpur and Public Hospital Sarkari Road Kela Khera — in Udham Singh Nagar district were being run by people without having any medical degree and without any registration under the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulations) Act, 2010.
While hearing the case, the HC expressed shock that surgeries were being performed by doctors who are not holding any prescribed medical degree in the state and directed the state government to seal all the clinical establishments, which are not registered under the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010.
