FOI release

Freedom of Information request on the number of yellow card reports received from 2017-2021 (FOI 21/1055)

Published 27 April 2022

11th October 2021

FOI 21/1055

Dear

Thank you for your email dated 13th September 2021 in which you requested, under the Freedom of Information Act, the number of direct Yellow Card reports received in each of the years 2017-2021 for the following four groups of reporters: patients, doctors, nurses, and pharmacists.

As you may be aware the Yellow Card Scheme is the UK system for collecting and monitoring information on suspected Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs). The Scheme is run by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and currently relies on voluntary reporting of suspected ADRs by health professionals and patients. There is also a legal obligation for pharmaceutical companies to report serious ADRs associated with their products to the MHRA. The purpose of the Scheme is to provide an early warning that the safety of a product may require further investigation.

The information you have requested can be found in Table 1 below.

Table 1. Summary of the number of direct Yellow Card reports received in each of the years 2017-2021 for patients, doctors, nurses and pharmacists.

Reporter/ Year	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	Total
Patients	7825	8255	8713	8219	9046	42058
Doctors	8938	8380	8804	6836	4930	37888
Nurses	3977	3842	3872	3124	1839	16654
Pharmacists	6775	6983	6983	6501	3582	30311
Total	27515	26947	28372	24680	19397	126911

Please note that within each of the reporter categories you specified, there are multiple possible qualifications. The qualifications that have been considered for each reporter category are stated below:

1. Patients – patient, parent, carer, consumer or other non-health professional.

2. Doctors – hospital doctor, general practitioner (GP), physician, dentist.

3. Nurses – nurse, hospital nurse.

4. Pharmacists – pharmacist, community pharmacist, hospital pharmacist, pre-registration pharmacist, pharmacy assistant.

For the year 2021, data up to and including 5th October 2021 were considered. Please note that the data provided do not include Yellow Card reports pertaining to suspected side-effects following COVID-19 vaccination. These data can be found on the weekly summary of Yellow Card reporting, which can be accessed via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-adverse-reactions/coronavirus-vaccine-summary-of-yellow-card-reporting

Please note that the number of reports received via the Yellow Card Scheme does not directly equate to the number of people who suffer adverse reactions to drugs for a number of reasons. ADR reporting rates may be influenced by the seriousness of reactions, their ease of recognition, extent of use of a particular drug or vaccine and promotion and publicity about a drug/vaccine. The fact that symptoms occur after a drug is given does not mean that they are caused by the drug itself as underlying or undiagnosed illnesses and other factors may be responsible.

I hope the information provided is helpful, but 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