Posted By :  Admin1

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has issued an order that physiotherapists in India should stop using the prefix “Dr.” because they are not medical doctors. The DGHS says this usage misleads people and could lead to confusion or misuse, as the Indian Medical Degrees Act 1916 requires that the “Dr.” title be used only by persons trained and registered as medical practitioners. The DGHS also pointed out that physiotherapists are not trained to diagnose medical conditions and therefore should only treat patients who are referred by medical doctors.

The order refers to past court rulings from places like Patna and Madras High Courts, which have already restricted use of medical titles by paramedical professionals. 

Earlier in 2025, the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) had allowed physiotherapists to use “Dr.” as a prefix and “PT” as a suffix under the new physiotherapy curriculum. But DGHS has now ordered that this usage be removed from the approved syllabus, saying it creates ambiguity for patients about who is a medical doctor and who is not.