Freedom of Information request on the number of Yellow Card reports submitted by the MHRA each year and the number of submitted reports from other ambulance trusts.
Published 26 May 2022
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FOI 21/1135
10th November 2021
Dear,
Thank you for your enquiry dated the 13th October, where you requested the number of Yellow Card reports submitted by your organisation each year and data on the number of submitted reports from other ambulance trusts. Please accept our apologies for not getting this information to you ahead of Medicines Safety Week.
Unfortunately, we do not specifically collect information on the organisation a reporter is from, instead, we ask for the reporter address or email address. Therefore, in this case to find Yellow Cards submitted by the East Midlands Ambulance Service we have searched for all spontaneous suspected UK Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) reports where the reporter’s email domain contained @emas.nhs.uk.
Using the above search criteria, we received no Yellow Card reports prior to 2020. We received one case in 2020 and in this case the reporter recorded their qualification as “Other Healthcare Professional”. In 2021, up to 28/10/2021, we have received 8 cases: 2 where the qualification has been recorded as “Other Healthcare Professional”, 5 where it is “Paramedic” and 1 where it is “Patient”.
Regarding your request for information on the reporting rates of other organisations. Again, the MHRA does not collect this information however as an alternative we have produced Table 1 (below) which shows the number of spontaneous suspected UK ADR reports received by the MHRA from 01/01/2019 – 28/10/2021 where the reporter qualification and/or speciality has been recorded as paramedic.
Please note the qualification field is not always filled out accurately by the reporter, for example, a paramedic may have selected “Other Healthcare Professional” or “Hospital Healthcare Professional“. Therefore, the data should not be used as a basis for determining reporting rates.
Table 1: Number of spontaneous suspected UK ADR reports received by the MHRA from 01/01/2019 – 28/10/2021 where the reporter qualification and/or speciality has been recorded as paramedic:
| ` | Year Received by MHRA - 1st Submission | Number of ADR reports |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 44 | |
| 2020 | 92 | |
| 01/01/2021-28/10/2021 | 888 | |
| Total | 1024 |
We were pleased to hear about your efforts to encourage staff to submit reports and think the following information and links may be of use to you. Press release regarding MedSafetyWeek - Every report counts: support the Yellow Card scheme by reporting suspected side effects - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Drug Safety Update for October which included a section on MedSafetyWeek November 2021: support the safety of vaccines
The MHRA is committed to improving patient safety and strategically runs regular public health campaigns to raise awareness about the importance of reporting to the Yellow Card scheme. You may be interested to view the resources and campaigns tabs on the Yellow Card website Yellow Card Scheme - MHRA.
The Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) are regularly informed of trends and themes in healthcare professional ADR reporting as well as any planned public health campaigns to raise awareness. You may also be interested to know that the MHRA commissions five regional Yellow Card Centres (YCCs) to support the education and promotion of Yellow Card reporting in their region, including reporting for COVID-19 treatments and vaccines. They are involved in various programmes which improve ADR reporting, including the establishment of nominated hospital pharmacists or pharmacy technicians as ‘Yellow Card Champions’. YCCs also work with devolved administrations and local healthcare professional bodies as well as local patient organisations to increase awareness and education about the importance of Yellow Card reporting for patient safety. Contact details for the 5 YCCs can be found here.
If you plan on sharing or publishing the data within this response more widely, please provide us with a copy beforehand so we can ensure correct interpretation.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of this response; and can be addressed to this email address.
Yours sincerely,
FOI Team
Vigilance and Risk Management of Medicines Division