Prescription format in India: what the rules require, with an example

A prescription in India answers to more than one rulebook. The medical code of ethics says what a doctor must write. The Drugs Rules say what a chemist needs before selling many everyday medicines. The Telemedicine Practice Guidelines add a sample format of their own. None of it is hard to follow, but it is rarely set out in one place with the exact words. Here it is, followed by a filled example and a checklist you can use tomorrow.

Which rules apply to a prescription in India?

Are the NMC’s 2023 prescription guidelines in force?

No. The National Medical Commission’s Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023, dated 2 August 2023, were meant to replace the 2002 code and included a section on prescribing generic medicines. Three weeks later, a Gazette notification dated 23 August 2023 held them “in abeyance with immediate effect”, said they “shall not be operative and effective till further Gazette Notification”, and made the 2002 regulations effective again.

We found no later notification that revives the 2023 code. In a public notice of 6 October 2026, the NMC’s ethics board still told doctors to read its new advertising guidelines with the 2002 regulations. So if a circular, an audit or a colleague cites “the NMC 2023 guidelines”, check which document they mean. The rules below are the ones in force.

What the medical code of ethics requires

Two clauses of the 2002 regulations do most of the work. Clause 1.4.1:

“Every physician shall display the registration number accorded to him by the State Medical Council / Medical Council of India in his clinic and in all his prescriptions, certificates, money receipts given to his patients.”

And clause 1.5, as substituted by a notification published in the Gazette of India on 8 October 2016:

“Every physician should prescribe drugs with generic names legibly and preferably in capital letters and he/she shall ensure that there is a rational prescription and use of drugs”

The 2016 wording dropped “as far as possible” from the original clause and added “legibly and preferably in capital letters”. The rest of the code fills in the letterhead and the edges:

• Name and qualifications. Write your name and designation in full, with your registration particulars, on the prescription letterhead (clause 3.7.2). Put only recognised degrees, diplomas and memberships after your name (clause 1.4.2). Clause 7.13 limits the prescription paper to your name, qualifications, titles, speciality and registration number, “including the name of the State Medical Council under which registered”.
• Generic and brand together. Clause 6.3 says medicines prescribed “should explicitly state the proprietary formulae as well as generic name of the drug”. The generic name first, with the brand after it, fits clauses 1.5 and 6.3 at once.
• If you dispense. “Prescription should also make clear if the Physician himself dispensed any medicine” (clause 3.7.1).
• Busy government OPDs. Where the patient load is heavy, the prescribing doctor’s name must be written below the signature (the note under clause 3.7.2).

Not displaying your registration number on prescriptions is listed as professional misconduct (clause 7.3), and so is any violation of the regulations (clause 7.1).

What the Drugs Rules add for Schedule H, H1 and X medicines

Schedule H is a long list of prescription-only medicines that includes everyday ones such as amlodipine and telmisartan. Schedule H1 is shorter and includes antibiotics such as cefixime and levofloxacin, tuberculosis medicines, and habit-forming medicines such as alprazolam, tramadol and zolpidem. Schedule X holds the most tightly controlled drugs. All three may be sold by retail only “on and in accordance with the prescription of a Registered Medical Practitioner” (rule 65(9)(a)), and a Schedule X prescription must be in duplicate.

Rule 65(10) says what that prescription must contain. As printed in the official compilation of the rules, unchanged in CDSCO’s current text:

“(10) For the purposes of clause (9) a prescription shall

(a) be in writing and be signed by the person giving it with his usual signature and be dated by him;

(b) specify the name and address of the person for whose treatment it is given, or the name and address of the owner of the animal if the drug is meant for veterinary use;

(c) indicate the total amount of the medicine to be supplied and the dose to be taken.”

Three more parts of rule 65 shape what you write:

1. Repeats. The prescription “must not be dispensed more than once” unless you have written on it that it may be, and then only as many times, or at the intervals, you state (rule 65(11)).
2. No swaps. Rule 65(11-A) says that no one dispensing these medicines “may supply any other preparation, whether containing the same substance or not, in lieu thereof”. The brand you write is the brand the patient gets.
3. The H1 register. Every Schedule H1 sale goes into a separate register with the prescriber’s name and address, the patient’s name, the medicine and the quantity, kept for three years (rule 65(3)).

The parts of a prescription, top to bottom

The Telemedicine Practice Guidelines include a sample prescription format (Annexure 2). It was drawn up for teleconsultations, but it is the regulator’s own layout and it lines up with the rules above. Put together, a complete prescription has these parts, in this order:

1. The doctor: name, qualifications and registration number with the name of the State Medical Council (clauses 1.4.1, 3.7.2 and 7.13), and the address and contact details, as in the sample format.
2. The date of the consultation (rule 65(10)(a)).
3. The patient: name, age, sex and address (rule 65(10)(b)), and weight wherever a dose depends on it. The sample format also has boxes for height and the last menstrual period, “wherever applicable”.
4. What you found: chief complaints, relevant history, examination and test findings.
5. The diagnosis, or a provisional diagnosis.
6. The medicines. For each: the form, the generic name in capitals and the strength, then the brand if you choose one; the dose, how often, when and for how long (clauses 1.5 and 6.3). The sample format asks for “drug form, strength, frequency of administration & duration”.
7. The total quantity of each medicine, and whether it may be dispensed again (rules 65(10)(c) and 65(11)).
8. Instructions for the patient, in a language they can read.
9. Investigations, advice and the follow-up date.
10. Your usual signature, with your name (rule 65(10)(a)).

A filled example

Everything here is made up: the hospital, the doctor, the patient and the registration number. It shows the format, not treatment advice.

Each quantity is the dose, times the number of times a day, times the days: 1 × 1 × 30 = 30 amlodipine tablets and 1 × 2 × 5 = 10 paracetamol tablets. Amlodipine is in Schedule H, so the address, the total and the repeats line all matter at the chemist’s counter, and because it names a brand, rule 65(11-A) means the patient gets that brand. Paracetamol is written by its generic name alone, which leaves the choice of maker open.

Write the instructions in the patient’s language

In a study of 500 patients in the medicine OPD of a public teaching hospital in New Delhi, Hindi was the main language for 99.6% and 75.2% could not read English. Only 1.8% knew everything about the medicines they had been prescribed, and patients who could not read English, or whose doctor told them only in writing, knew less.

One line per medicine in the patient’s language settles most questions at the chemist’s counter and at home. Write it from the prescription itself, so the two can never disagree, and use the words people use:

• रोज़ सुबह नाश्ते के बाद 1 गोली (one tablet every morning after breakfast)
• खाली पेट, नाश्ते से आधा घंटा पहले (on an empty stomach, half an hour before breakfast)
• दर्द हो तभी लें, दिन में 3 से ज़्यादा नहीं (take only when in pain, not more than 3 a day)
• दवा बीच में बंद न करें, 5 दिन पूरे करें (don’t stop midway; finish all 5 days)

Abbreviations such as 1-0-1, BD and HS are written for the chemist, not the patient. In the patient’s line, spell out morning, afternoon and night, and the number of days.

Seven checks before you sign

1. Is my registration number there, with the name of my State Medical Council?
2. Is every medicine’s generic name written legibly, in capitals?
3. Does each line give the form, strength, dose, how often, when and for how long?
4. Is the total quantity written for every medicine?
5. Have I said whether it may be dispensed again, and how many times?
6. Are the patient’s name, age and address on it (and the weight, for a child), with today’s date and my signature?
7. Can the patient read the instructions?

Where DrMate Rx fits

DrMate Rx, our prescription pad, prints in this format. Type pcm 650 1-0-1 5d af and the medicine prints as “Tab PARACETAMOL 650 mg” with “Qty: 10 tabs” under it, and 1 tab, BD (1-0-1), after food and 5 days in its own columns. Every medicine shows the generic name first in capitals, then the brand you chose, with the dose, how often, when, how long and the total quantity. “May be repeated” and “generic substitution allowed” print only when you tick them. Each medicine gets a line of Hindi instructions written from the prescription, and the pad warns you before you sign without a registration number.

Before you sign, it also checks for an allergy to a drug family, too much paracetamol in a day across brands, the same medicine twice, an adult dose for a child and medicines to avoid in pregnancy. It is not a drug-interaction database, and it never picks a medicine for you. If you would rather talk than type, the doctor’s room drafts the prescription from the consultation for you to approve; our guide to AI scribes for Hindi-English consultations explains what to test before you trust one.