The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7256 p5
5 July 2003

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Pharmacists' yellow card reports up but more to do

Reporting of adverse drug reactions by pharmacists via the yellow card scheme has increased over the past 12 months.

Speaking at this year's Pharmaceutical Care Awards in London last week, Professor Martin Kendall, professor of clinical pharmacology, University of Birmingham, said that pharmacist reports have increased by 68 per cent on the same period last year.

However, the number of reports made by pharmacists is still small compared with the overall number of reports. In May last year, 671 reports had been made by pharmacists compared with 1,127 this year. But last year, approximately 18,000 reports were made altogether. Breaking these figures down further, Professor Kendall identified that so far this year, 1,032 reports had been made by hospital pharmacists and 166 by community pharmacists. "Pharmacists could do a good deal to tell us more about the adverse reactions that people are having," he said.

Professor Kendall challenged pharmacists: "Set yourselves a target. Beat the doctors' reporting level in five years' time. Make them feel embarrassed. I'm sure that you can do it."

A full report of this year's Pharmaceutical Care Awards starts on p15.