The Yellow Card Scheme is the UK system for collecting information on suspected Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) to medicines. The Scheme was founded in 1964 after the thalidomide disaster, and was developed by Dr Bill Inman. It is run by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM). Suspected ADRs are collected on all licensed medicines and vaccines, from those issued on prescription to medicines bought over the counter from a pharmacist or supermarket. The Scheme also includes all herbal preparations and unlicensed medicines. ADRs can be reported by anyone; this is usually done by healthcare professionals - including doctors, pharmacists and nurses - but patients and carers can also make reports.
The sort of ADRs that should be reported are:
- ADRs that have caused death or a serious illness
- Any ADR, however minor, if associated with a new medicine or one that is under continued monitoring (highlighted in the British National Formulary (BNF) with a ▼ black triangle)
- Any ADR, however minor, if associated with a child (under 18 years of age) or in pregnancy
Yellow Cards are available from pharmacies and a few are presented near the back of the BNF as tear-off pages, copies may also be obtained by telephoning +44 (0) 808 100 3352. It is also possible to report suspected side effects online
The NHS Information Standards Board for Health and Social Care has issued an information standard for electronic submission of ADRs by IT systems. This is based upon the ICS E2B (R2) international standard
Famous quotes containing the words yellow, card and/or scheme:
“He’s made a harp of her breast-bane,
Whose sound wad melt a heart of stane.
He’s ta’en three locks o’ her yellow hair,
And wi’ them strung his harp sae rare.”
—Unknown. Binnorie; or, The Two Sisters (l. 41–44)
“There is undoubtedly something religious about it: everyone believes that they are special, that they are chosen, that they have a special relation with fate. Here is the test: you turn over card after card to see in which way that is true. If you can defy the odds, you may be saved. And when you are cleaned out, the last penny gone, you are enlightened at last, free perhaps, exhilarated like an ascetic by the falling away of the material world.”
—Andrei Codrescu (b. 1947)
“We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That ostracism, both political and moral, has
Its place in the twentieth-century scheme of things....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)