The Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) wants the Centre to take proactive steps towards adopting and implementing a model format for prescription of medicines to avoid complications arising out of incomplete and illegible prescriptions. Experts pointed out that currently there is lot of confusion among pharmacists while dispensing medicines due to lack of any uniform prescription format or model in the country which is leading to either delay in services, difficulty while dispensing and in some cases even medication error.
 
This issue was raised by the Association while seeking clarification from the Centre on certain aspects of Rule 65 (11) as there is some ambiguity in its current form in explaining about the refilling guidelines. IPA stressed that to avoid confusion and ensure enhanced patient centric services, the guidelines relating to the refilling of medication should be clearly specified, different for different drug categories.
 
The Rule 65 (11) states that any person dispensing drugs falling under the provision of Schedule H or Schedule X should ensure that the prescription should not be dispensed more than once, unless the prescriber has specifically mentioned so. Or when the prescription contains a direction that it may be dispensed a stated number of times or at intervals in accordance with the directions.
 
IPA stressed that the provision in its current form has lot of grey areas, which are sometimes hard to decipher for a pharmacist. Thus to bring in better understanding of the same, the association feels that the Centre should take concrete steps towards ensuring that all the prescription has clear instruction on whether the drugs should be dispensed once or refilled. Further they also want the medical practitioners to specify how many times the medicine should be refilled along with minimum and maximum gap between two dispenses.
 
Kaushik Desai general secretary of IPA informed that all this boils down to the fact that unlike western counterparts, India still does not have a model prescription format, which is very essential to ensure patient safety. “We strongly feel that the government needs to lay down some guidelines and make it mandatory for the practitioners to follow a designated format as this would not only ease the hurdles of all the stakeholders involved but ensure a better healthcare delivery system as well. There is certainly an urgent need to regulate when or under which condition over-writing in prescription is allowed, include a clause that specifically caters to incomplete prescription and how it should not be dispensed to name a few,” he added.
 
To address this issue at a micro level, it is understood that the Medical Council of India (MCI) has suggested a model format, while the Maharashtra FDA has also issued a model format for the same. However, since implementing these models are purely on voluntary basis it has not been able to garner the desired impact, stated an industry expert. “If using model format is voluntary than mandatory, things will only change for the better when the government take steps to make it mandatory. If the Act suggests a basic format, then it will be followed and enforcement would be easier,” pointed out Desai.