Prescription is an order for medication
written/issued by a physician, dentist or
other registered medical practitioner and it
is a part of the professional relationship
among the physician, pharmacist and
patient. It can also be defined as signed
written order by a physician to pharmacist
with certain directions for dispensing the
prescribed drugs/formulations and their
uses by the patient. It is the pharmacist’s
responsibility in this relationship to provide
quality patient and pharmaceutical care that
meets the medication needs of the patient.
It is also the responsibility to advise the
physician of drug sensitivities the patient
may have, previous adverse drug reactions
or allergy, or other medications that the
patient may be taking which may alter the
efficacy or safety of the newly or previously
prescribed drugs.
Since pharmacist is the key person
between physician and patient, he must
establish and maintain the trust of the
physician and patient. The important part
in this relationship includes maintaining
confidentiality. The medication being taken
by a patient and the nature/severity of the
illness is a private matter which must be
respected.
There are two types of legal prescription
according to Drugs and Cosmetics Act; those
that can be obtained by prescription only and
those that may be purchased without a pre-
scription and one termed as non-prescription
drugs or over-the-counter (OTC) drugs.
While a prescription can be written on
any peice of paper (but it should contain
all legal elements), it usually takes a spe-
cific printed form on pad that contains
blank spaces for the required informa-
tion. In certain emergency conditions it
may be communicated telephonically or
directly to the pharmacist by electronic
means.ELEMENTS OF THE PRESCRIPTIONPrescription usually are written on printed
pad of blanks, which consists of following
parts.
(i) Name and address of the prescrib-
er: Most prescription blanks are
imprinted with the name, address,