Kolkata: E-prescriptions at govt hosps from today

KOLKATA: To bring in transparency and maintain a digital record of diseases, the state health department is going to start e-prescription at government hospitals and medical colleges along with 174 block primary health centres from July 1.

A missive issued by the department said the process will help to generate and maintain medical records along with disease profiles and medical history of patients. This is also going to improve the usage of generic drugs and help in sharing patient data.

A health official said that all government health facilities have been told to install the necessary IT system. At least 50% of the wards of the hospitals are going to be covered under the e-prescription model.

From Saturday, doctors in all govt hospitals will need to type their prescriptions as the hand-written mode will no more be allowed. Some private hospitals have already introduced this e-prescription system, the official said.

The official felt in the first few days, there might be some problems for the doctors in the absence of any data entry operator.