Physiotherapists can’t use Dr: The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has directed that physiotherapists must not use the ‘Dr.’ prefix, stating that they are not medical doctors and doing so would violate the Indian Medical Degrees Act, 1916.
In a letter dated September 9 to the Indian Medical Association National President Dr. Dilip Bhanushali, DGHS chief Dr. Sunita Sharma wrote that using “Dr” “misleads patients and the public, potentially leading to quackery,” adding that physiotherapists are not trained to diagnose and should not be permitted to practice primary care but should treat referred cases only.
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The DGHS cited earlier legal and regulatory pronouncements, including advisories by medical councils and rulings of the Patna and Madras High Courts, barring physiotherapists/occupational therapists from using the ‘Dr’ title. The letter also recalled an ethics committee view (Paramedical and Physiotherapy Central Council Bill, 2007) that the title “Doctor (Dr.)” is reserved for registered practitioners of modern medicine, Ayurveda, Homoeopathy and Unani.
Notably, the directive comes months after the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) said in April that physiotherapists could use ‘Dr’ as a prefix and ‘PT’ as a suffix under the 2025 Physiotherapy Curriculum. The DGHS has now asked that the ‘Dr’ prefix be removed forthwith from the “Competency Based Curriculum for Physiotherapy Approved Syllabus 2025,” suggesting a respectful alternative that avoids confusion.
Any violation, the letter warned, would attract action under the Act (Section 7 for contravention of Sections 6 & 6A), reflecting a Council decision adopted in March 2004.
