Bhubaneswar, Jan 12: The Odisha government on Friday issued a direction, instructing doctors across the state to write Medical reports and prescriptions in bold capital letters or in legible handwriting.
The health department urged the Chief District Medical Officers to implement it soon, after the Orissa High Court’s directives in this connection.
The Orissa High Court had recently issued directions to the health department to ensure that doctors write all prescriptions, postmortem reports and other documentation in legible handwriting, if possible, in capital letters or in a typed format.
The issue came to the fore when Justice S K Panigrahi found it difficult to decide a case, pertaining to granting of ex-gratia in a snakebite death, as the post mortem report annexed in the petition was not legible and could not be comprehended.
Thus, all the registered medical practitioners, medical officers of state-run health facilities, private clinics and medical colleges have been asked to carry out the instruction as per guidelines of National Medical Commission (Chapter 2-4B/Notification dated May 23, 2022).
“The medico legal reports and postmortem reports are to be written either in capital letter or in a typed form or in good legible handwriting to ensure appreciation of evidence in the judicial system and to be uploaded in MLOS,” it said.
