05.11.12
Pharmacists want men more engaged with their medicines
The MHRA has offered its support to a campaign by the National Pharmacy Association to encourage men to get more engaged with the medicines they use.
It is part of the NPA’s ‘Ask Your Pharmacist Week’. This initiative gives an opportunity for men to discuss with their pharmacists possible side effects from their medicines and the MHRA wants patients and pharmacists to report these via its ‘Yellow Card’ reporting scheme.
Colette McCreedy, specialist in self medication at the MHRA said: “Pharmacists are uniquely placed to promote patient safety and have many opportunities to discuss, identify and report suspected adverse reactions particularly when providing clinical services, such as medicines use reviews (MURs) and the new medicine service (NMS).”
Mike Holden, NPA chief executive, said: “Community pharmacy has an important role to play in promoting the Yellow Card scheme to patients and public. A central message of this year’s ‘Ask Your Pharmacist Week’ is that a face-to-face discussion with the pharmacist can be key to safer and more effective medicines use. The New Medicine Service in England provides an ideal opportunity to identify and report adverse drug reactions.”
Yellow Cards are used by the MHRA as an early warning system to help identify unrecognised adverse reactions and to refine the understanding of risk factors that may affect the clinical management of patients. But currently only 35% of Yellow Cards contain information about medicine side effects in men.
Visit: www.mhra.gov.uk/yellowcard and Ask Your Pharmacist Week 2012 – Engaging men
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