FOI release

Freedom of Information request on the yellow card reports submitted by the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (FOI 22/667)

Published 22 March 2023

FOI 22/667

31 May 2022

Dear,

Thank you for your email dated 3rd May 2022, where you asked for information on the following:

The number and type of Yellow Card reports submitted by your NHS Trust (Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust).

In order to provide the details of Yellow Card reports received from Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, data is extracted based on the postcode provided in the original Yellow Card reports. The following postcodes were used to identify reports from your Trust:

• Southend University Hospital – SS0 0RY

• Broomfield Hospital – CM1 7ET

• Basildon University Hospital – SS16 5NL

I can confirm that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has received 1,404 UK spontaneous suspected Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) reports as of 19th May 2022 from the above-mentioned postcodes. The total number of reports received per postcode is provided in Table 1. A breakdown of the top ten most frequent reporters is also provided in Table 2. Tables 3-5 provide a breakdown of the top ten most frequently reported drug substances per postcode.

Please note, that the accuracy of the data relies on the postcode being provided by the reporter on the original Yellow Card. Furthermore, if the postcode is incorrectly provided or incomplete then the Yellow Card will not be provided in the analysis. Please also note that it is not mandatory to provide a postal address on a Yellow Card and the reporter may choose to provide only an email address; in these instances the Yellow Card will not be included in this data. As the data has been extracted using available postal addresses only, it may not reflect the true incidence of reporting from these particular postcodes.

When considering the below spontaneous data, it is important to be aware of the following. The number of reports received via the Yellow Card scheme does not directly equate to the number of people who suffer adverse reactions and therefore cannot be used to determine the incidence of a reaction. ADR reporting rates are influenced by the seriousness of ADRs, their ease of recognition, the extent of use of a particular medicine, and may be stimulated by promotion and publicity about a drug. Reporting tends to be highest for newly introduced medicines during the first one to two years on the market and then falls over time, therefore comparisons of absolute numbers between products may be invalid.

Table 1: Total number of UK spontaneous suspected ADR reports received per postal code as of 19th May 2022*

	Southend University Hospital - CM1 7ET	Broomfield Hospital - SS16 5NL	Basildon University Hospital - SS0 0RY
Number of reports	421	470	514

*Please note that the sum of the total number of reports for each individual postcode does not equate to total number of reports received. One report returned a postcode across both SS0 0RY and SS16 5NL sites.

Table 2: Number of UK spontaneous suspected ADR reports received by reporter qualification per postcode as of 19th May 2022**

Southend University Hospital - CM1 7ET		Broomfield Hospital - SS16 5NL		Basildon University Hospital - SS0 0RY
Reporter qualification ***	Number of reports	Reporter qualification	Number of reports	Reported qualification	Number of reports
Hospital Doctor	132	Hospital Doctor	155	Hospital Doctor	282
Hospital Nurse	108	Hospital Nurse	78	Other healthcare professional	49
Other healthcare professional	54	Hospital Pharmacist	64	Hospital Nurse	43
Hospital Pharmacist	34	Other healthcare professional	62	Hospital Pharmacist	39
Physician	23	Nurse	30	Physician	27
Nurse	20	Physician Hospital Healthcare Professional	21	Nurse	13
Radiographer	14	Consumer or other non-health professional Healthcare assistant	9	Pharmacist	10
Pharmacist	5	Patient Paramedic	-	Consumer or other non-health professional	7
Healthcare assistant	-	Pre-reg pharmacist	-	Healthcare assistant	6

** Where there were fewer than 5 reports per cell, we have not provided the data in order to protect reporter confidentiality and prevent identification of the reporters.

*** Where there is more than one qualification or substance per cell, each qualification or substance had the same number of reports

Table 3: Top ten most reported substances for postal code SS0 0RY as of 19th May 2022.

Southend University Hospital
Substance	Number of reports
COVID-19 Pfizer/ BioNTech Vaccine	53
COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca	25
INTERFERON BETA	21
LAMOTRIGINE	20
TOPIRAMATE	17
GABAPENTIN	11
LEVETIRACETAM	10
VIGABATRIN	9
RANIBIZUMAB	8
HEPATITIS B VIRUS	7

Table 4: Top ten most reported substances for postal code CM1 7ET as of 19th May 2022.

Broomfield Hospital
Substance***	No of reports
COVID-19 Pfizer/ BioNTech Vaccine	61
ADALIMUMAB	49
COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca	23
CO-AMOXICLAV	15
MORPHINE	10
GADOTERIC ACID	8
ROCURONIUM AMOXYCILLIN	7
ATRACURIUM	6
BUPROPION CLOPIDOGREL DICLOFENAC RANIBIZUMAB INTERFERON BETA PATENT BLUE V INFLIXIMAB	5
CARBAMAZEPINE ETANERCEPT IOHEXOL RIVAROXABAN NAPROXEN PREGABALIN RAMIPRIL IOVERSOL	4

Table 5: Top ten most reported substances for postal code SS16 5NL as of 19th May 2022.

Basildon University Hospital
Substance***	No of reports
COVID-19 Pfizer/ BioNTech Vaccine	58
CLOZAPINE	37
COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca NEISSERIA MENINGITIDIS	19
INFLIXIMAB	15
EMPAGLIFLOZIN	13
APIXABAN ERYTHROPOIETIN	8
INFLUENZA VIRUS FERRIC DERISOMALTOSE	7
STRONTIUM RANELATE RITUXIMAB	6
DICLOFENAC ZOLEDRONIC ACID ADALIMUMAB ALENDRONIC ACID ROFECOXIB INTERFERON BETA INSULIN GLARGINE	5
HEPATITIS B VIRUS CYCLOSPORIN RIVAROXABAN CARBAMAZEPINE TICARGRELOR TERIPARATIDE LINEZOLID PHENYTOIN	4

Please note that when the Yellow Card Scheme was established, one of the key principles defined was that it would not be used for audit purposes as health professionals should send Yellow Cards on a voluntary basis. This data should not be used in any way to attempt to identify the original reporter of the Yellow Card nor should the data be used for disciplinary or audit purposes. This data should not be published on your internet (internal or external) and should only be used for your own purposes.

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,

Patient Safety Monitoring