Chandigarh, India – September 29, 2025 – The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed doctors to improve their handwriting or adopt typed prescriptions, warning that illegible medical notes are putting patients’ lives at risk.
The directive came after a judge admitted he could not decipher a prescription and medico-legal report presented in court. The ruling stressed that clear medical instructions are directly linked to the constitutional right to life.
Doctors Told to Use Clear Writing or Digital Notes
The court ordered both government and private doctors to ensure all prescriptions and medical records are legible, preferably written in capital letters until digital systems are fully adopted.
Judges further directed:
- Health authorities to run awareness campaigns and district-level meetings, supervised by civil surgeons.
- Medical schools to incorporate penmanship training into their curriculum.
- The government to roll out e-prescriptions within two years.
Why It Matters
According to the court, illegible prescriptions are not a minor nuisance but a serious threat that can cause:
- Wrong medications
- Treatment delays
- Misdiagnosis
- Avoidable legal disputes
The Bigger Picture
In an era of computers and smartphones, the court noted that relying on scrawled, unreadable notes is “both outdated and unsafe.” The push for digital prescriptions is part of a broader global trend to improve patient safety and accountability in healthcare.
For context, similar measures have been introduced in countries like the UK’s NHS and the US CDC, where electronic prescriptions have reduced medical errors significantly.
