Publish date: 6 November 2023
This week is Meds Safety Week, the focus of this year’s campaign is who can report suspected safety concerns involving healthcare products, such as side effects with a medicine or an adverse medical device incident.
We all have a key role to play in medicine safety.
The Yellow Card Scheme allows you to report suspected problems with medical or healthcare products.
The scheme relies on voluntary reporting of problems to a healthcare product by the public (including patients, parents and carer givers) as well as from healthcare professionals. The scheme also collects suspected safety concerns involving defective (not of an acceptable quality), falsified or fake healthcare products.
It is important for people to report problems experienced with healthcare products as these are used to identify issues which might not have been previously known about. The purpose of the Yellow Card scheme is to provide an early warning that the safety of a product may require more further investigation. The scheme helps the MHRA monitor the safety of all healthcare products in the UK to ensure they are acceptably safe for patients and users. Reports are used alongside other safety information and help the MHRA to take action if any trends associated to the safety or efficacy of a healthcare product are identified.
Don’t forget to check out the e-learning modules about the importance of reporting.
