The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 263 No 7072 p810
November 20, 1999 Clinical

CSM confidence in pharmacist ADR reporting

We have "every confidence that community pharmacist adverse drug reaction reporting is a worthwhile enterprise," the chairman of the Committee on Safety of Medicines (Professor Alasdair Breckenridge) said last week. Speaking on November 10 at a meeting to launch the extension to the "yellow card" scheme to include community pharmacist reporting (PJ, November 13, p776), Professor Breckenridge said that the CSM and the Medicines Control Agency were always trying to improve the system. New initiatives were often introduced - "some work and some don't." Three of the successful recent initiatives had been the HIV adverse drug reaction reporting scheme, from which a considerable number of reports were now being received, the paediatric ADR monitoring unit in Nottingham and Derby, and the scheme for hospital pharmacist reporting, introduced in 1997, "an initiative which we are very proud of." Following the success of the hospital pharmacist scheme, it had seemed logical to extend the scheme to community pharmacists.

Alasdair Breckenridge: "We are always trying to improve the yellow card system"

Professor Breckenridge said that the CSM and MCA were still cautious about direct patient reporting of adverse reactions, although this might come at some later date. He emphasised that many adverse drug reactions were due to interactions, which could occur between prescribed and over-the-counter drugs. Patients could be diffident about disclosing their self-medication to doctors but might report to pharmacists, who would, therefore, be in a good position to pick up the interactions.
Also speaking at the launch meeting, Dr Keith Jones (chief executive, Medicines Control Agency) said that community pharmacist involvement in the "yellow card" scheme "will extend reporting and will also capture information we would otherwise not have on OTC medicines and alternative medicines".
The President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (Mrs Christine Glover) said that ADR reporting offered community pharmacists a unique opportunity to become more involved in patient care. "I encourage all our members to take up the challenge as reporters," she said.