LUCKNOW, Sept. 26 -- Doctors across Uttar Pradesh may soon need to brush up their Hindi vocabulary as UP deputy chief minister and health minister Brajesh Pathak has urged them to write the names of medicines and tests prescribed to patients in Hindi or Devanagari script, saying this could make healthcare information easier for patients to understand. In his appeal to the medical community, Pathak said he was making the request not only as the deputy chief minister and health minister but also as a Hindi-loving Indian. He said at a personal level, he would give preference to medicines whose names were written in Hindi. "As the state's medical and medical education minister, I would also appeal, as a nationalist Indian, to doctors to write the names of medicines and tests in Hindi on prescriptions for the ease of patients," he stated in an open letter to doctors on Friday, urging them to make Hindi and Indian languages a more regular part of medical communication. He added that this would also strengthen the trust between patients and doctors. The deputy CM's appeal comes as medical communication continues to rely on technical terminology and commonly used English terms. Pathak pointed out that September 25 marks the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, nationalist thinker and proponent of integral humanism. The occasion, he suggested, could also be marked by taking a pledge to promote Hindi. "The Prime Minister communicates in Hindi during his visits abroad and we should also promote Indian languages. Doctors prescribing in Hindi will be felicitated," he said. Doctors, while welcoming efforts to promote the use of Hindi, said implementing this would bring practical difficulties. Pathak appealed to promote the use of Hindi and Indian languages in the medical sector to make the healthcare system more accessible and understandable for patients. Doctors said there were practical issues in writing prescriptions in Hindi. "Few books are available in Hindi for MBBS first year. They are either translated or written for the sake, hence names of organs or medicines are in English amid Hindi sentences. Pharmacology, in particular, is taught in English. Medical students do not even know proper Hindi names of medicines," said Dr NS Verma, former head physiology at King George's Medical University, Lucknow. "National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority had suggested printing names of medicines in Hindi and English (both), and many companies followed, giving an option to read the names of medicines in two languages," said Suresh Gupta, general secretary, Chemists and Druggists Federation, UP. Dr Snehlata Verma, of medicine department at LLRM Medical College (Meerut), said: "Efforts are on to avoid brand name and write salt/molecule name. Writing ciprofloxocin in Hindi will be difficult and equally confusing for staff at chemists to read." Reacting to the minister's appeal, UP Congress president Ajai Rai said: "The UP health department needs more medicines and doctors who may write prescriptions in a language they prefer and find suitable."...