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Do I need to be certain before Reporting?
All that is required is a reasonable suspicion that a health
effect has been caused by a medicine in normal therapeutic use.
It is important to remember that proof of association, for example,
by a rechallenge, is NOT necessary.
In the case of serious reactions
reporters are often uncertain as to whether to send in reports of
reactions they regard as well known. For serious reactions it is
still important to report these since this information is used to
develop health policies, for example, on over the counter marketing,
and to allow relative toxicity of drugs that are in the same class
to be compared.
If you are concerned about the effects of drugs taken in overdose
then in Scotland please contact the Scottish
Poisons Information Bureau website or telephone 0870 600 6266.
Information to include
on a Yellow Card
Information should include:
Details of the patient
Please complete the patient's local identifier number
and initials, together with their
age, gender, and weight.
Suspect drug
Please complete the drug name, route, dose, dates of administration
and if known the indication.
Suspect reaction
Please provide the clinical information available to you including
date, outcomes, and treatment if known or relevant.
Other medicines
Please also include details of all additional other medicines
prescribed for the patient or bought over the counter in the previous 3 months. This is necessary
because the drug you suspect may in fact only have caused the
reaction because of an interaction with one of the other
medicines. Collecting data of this sort is extremely helpful in
identifying ADRs.
Reporter details
Please complete all the details requested in the box, including
a contact name, address and ideally telephone number. If you
are not a physician please also include the relevant clinician's
name in the adjacent box.
How do I complete a Yellow Card?
• Either print out, complete and post the Healthcare Professional Paper Yellow Card or the Patient Reporting Yellow Card to us or complete an electronic Yellow Card
• If you don't want to complete a Yellow Card you can send
us details of a reaction you wish to discuss
with a member of staff here together with a contact telephone
number or e-mail address and we will get back to you.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality of health details are important to patients and
health professionals alike. Nevertheless, without a patient identifier
on the yellow card it will not be possible for us to make full use
of the report. This information is important in follow-up, and may
also help to prevent duplicate reports on the database. In the case
of reports from pharmacists and nurses, this information will also
be used to notify the doctor who is involved in the patients care
and who has prescribed the medicine. This is important because the
doctor may be able to provide additional information not available
at the time of reporting.
The reporter, however, must include all details of their name and
address in order that appropriate follow-up may be taken. If
the reporter is anonymous it is unlikely the report will be entered
into the database since this does not constitute a valid report.
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Key
Personnel
Complete
a Yellow Card
BY POST
discuss with a member of our staff