As a health professional, you have an integral role to play in identifying ADRs and reporting these to the authorities. The Yellow Card scheme collects reports of adverse incidents associated with medicines and medical devices.

You should report suspected ADRs to all medicines (licensed and unlicensed), including: prescription medicines, vaccines, over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, blood factors and immunoglobulins, herbal remedies,  and homeopathic remedies. For medicines you should report, all serious reactions even if the reaction is well known, all unusual reactions, and all adverse reactions associated with a new medicines (i.e. black triangle scheme). To submit a valid medicine report to the scheme, you need to provide four items of information: an identifiable patient, a suspect reaction, a suspect drug and an identifiable reporter.

Remember, you don’t have to have proof that an adverse event was caused by the medicine, only a suspicion and patients can now also self-report. If you suspect an ADR report it here https://yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/