Benefits of Champions and their Positive Impact on Reporting Culture
in Relation to Pharmacovigilance
Yellow Card Hospital
Champion Scheme
Centre Wales
Alana Adams, Alison Thomas, Emma Carey, Fiona Woods, Philip Routledge, Robert Bracchi
Yellow Card Scheme
Hospital Champions
The Yellow Card Scheme is vital in helping the Medicines and
Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) monitor the safety of
medicines and vaccines that are on the market.
The number of Yellow Cards reported in Wales to the MHRA fell by
26% in 2011-2012 and represented the lowest number of Yellow
Cards submitted annually for the past ten years.
In an attempt to improve reporting rates amongst hospital based
reporters in Wales, YCC Wales submitted a proposal to the All Wales
Chief Pharmacist Committee (AWCPC) recommending the
introduction of a Yellow Card Hospital Champion Scheme.
Aims and Objectives
Recruitment and Training
The role specification for the Hospital Champion Scheme was agreed
by the AWCPC in November 2012 and comprised:
•To act as an information resource, provide guidance and to deal with
local queries on pharmacovigilance and Yellow Card reporting.
•To proactively assist other colleagues in the completion of Yellow
Cards as a result of adverse drug reactions.
•To provide education and training sessions on pharmacovigilance and
Yellow Card reporting to hospital staff.
•To increase local publicity of the Yellow Card Scheme.
•To keep up to date with legislative changes at the MHRA and EMA
and communicate these and other drug safety issues to the relevant
parties.
•To attend a training session at YCC Wales.
•To provide YCC Wales details of all training sessions undertaken.
Chief Pharmacists from all Health Boards in Wales nominated a
pharmacist or pharmacy technician. Some Health Boards nominated
one representative whereas others nominated one champion per
hospital. In total, fourteen champions were recruited.
Public Health Wales nominated a pharmacist to act as a Public Health
Yellow Card Champion.
The champions were invited to a pharmacovigilance and Yellow Card
Scheme training day. Education, training and resources were
provided.
YCC Wales also regularly communicated any latest pharmacovigilance news and data. Two teleconferences were held to share
ideas and review the progress being made.
Reporting data was analysed and compared to the previous annual
figures by reporter type and overall Health Board figures.
Audit Standards
Results
A total of 1177 reports of suspected adverse drug reactions originated from the YCC Wales region in 2013/2014. This represents an increase
of 81% when compared to 2012/13 (649). Chart 1 shows the total number of reports over time.
Discussion & Conclusions
There has been an encouraging increase in the number of reports from Wales in 2013-14, increasing by 81% (1177) when compared to the
previous year (649).
This represents the highest number of reports in a year since 2005. The highest number of reports was from hospital pharmacists, who displayed a
129% increase on the number of reports made in 2012-13. This increase is closely associated temporally with the launch of the Yellow Card
Hospital Champion Scheme.
The Yellow Card Hospital Champion Scheme has enabled YCC Wales to reach a wider audience across all Health Boards in Wales. In all, 438
extra healthcare professionals received training on the Yellow Card Scheme at 38 sessions. All champions gave positive feedback on their first
year in the role and indicated that they would like their participation in the scheme to continue.
The Future
In future, it would be valuable to include community based champions to ensure adequate coverage of colleagues in primary care. Phase two of the
improvement work aims to develop the scheme in this area. Including patients in the improvement work at an early stage is something that would
also be beneficial in the future.