Do I have to be sure the medicine caused it?

No. Report a suspicion. The point of the scheme is to collect suspected reactions so that patterns can be found across many reports; deciding whether the medicine was the cause is the MHRA’s job, not yours.

Should I report something that is already listed in the leaflet?

Yes. Reports about known side effects still tell the MHRA how often they happen and how severe they are. Serious suspected reactions are the most important to report, whether or not they are already listed.

Can I report on behalf of someone else?

Yes. A patient, a carer, a relative or a healthcare professional can all submit a Yellow Card report.

Does reporting to you count as reporting to the MHRA?

We record what you tell us and we meet our own obligations as a pharmacy, but you should also submit a Yellow Card yourself. Your report is in your own words, and that is worth more than a summary of it.

Will reporting stop my treatment?

Reporting does not by itself change anything you have been prescribed. What may change it is a prescriber’s review of what you have reported, which is a clinical decision and is explained to you.

Safety

Report a side effect

If you think a medicine has caused a problem, report it — even if you are not sure. Reporting is how safety information about medicines is gathered in the UK, and it is how a pattern nobody could see in one patient becomes visible across many.

Two places to report it

Do both. They do different things: telling us changes what happens to your treatment, and the Yellow Card goes into the national safety record for that medicine.

Step one
Tell us
Message us from your account, so the report reaches a clinician with your record attached and is written into it. Your prescriber reads it and decides whether anything about your treatment should change. We record every report we receive, whether or not it changes anything, and we meet our own reporting obligations as a registered pharmacy.
Sign in and message us
No account, or reporting for someone else? Email [TO BE SUPPLIED]. Answered during opening hours only: Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Closed on bank holidays.
Step two
Submit a Yellow Card to the MHRA
The Yellow Card scheme is run by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and is how suspected side effects, defective medicines and safety concerns are reported in the UK. Anyone can use it — patients, carers and healthcare professionals — and you do not need to be certain the medicine was responsible. The MHRA also publishes a Yellow Card app, and its site lists the other ways a report can be made.
yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk
The link opens the MHRA's own site. We have no part in what you submit there and we do not see it.

What counts as a side effect

Anything unwanted that happens while you are taking a medicine and that you suspect the medicine caused. It does not have to be severe, it does not have to be unusual, and it does not have to be listed in the leaflet. A symptom that turned out to be unrelated is still a report worth making.

The scheme also takes reports about a medicine that did not seem to work as expected, a defective or counterfeit product, a problem with a device such as an injection pen, and a medicine that caused a problem in pregnancy or breastfeeding.

The full list of known side effects for your medicine, and how common each is, is in the patient information leaflet supplied with it and in the Summary of Product Characteristics on the electronic medicines compendium.

What to have to hand

None of this is required — an incomplete report is better than no report — but each of these makes a report more useful.

The name of the medicine and the strength you are taking
When you started it, and when the strength last changed
What happened, when it started, and whether it has stopped
Anything else you take, including things bought without a prescription
Your age and sex — the MHRA asks for these because they affect how a report is assessed

What we do with a report

It is written into your clinical record with the date and who received it, and it is put in front of a prescriber. They decide whether to continue, change the strength, pause or stop, and they tell you which and why. Our prescribing rules do not permit an increase in strength in the cycle after a severe reaction has been reported, so that decision is not left to anyone's judgement on the day.

Where we are required to report a suspected reaction onwards — to the MHRA or to the company that holds the medicine's licence — we do. That is a pharmacy's obligation and it does not depend on you having also submitted a Yellow Card.

Your report is health data and is handled as described in our privacy notice. A Yellow Card you submit yourself goes to the MHRA, not to us, and the MHRA explains on its own site what it does with it.

Common questions

Do I have to be sure the medicine caused it?: No. Report a suspicion. The point of the scheme is to collect suspected reactions so that patterns can be found across many reports; deciding whether the medicine was the cause is the MHRA’s job, not yours.
Should I report something that is already listed in the leaflet?: Yes. Reports about known side effects still tell the MHRA how often they happen and how severe they are. Serious suspected reactions are the most important to report, whether or not they are already listed.
Can I report on behalf of someone else?: Yes. A patient, a carer, a relative or a healthcare professional can all submit a Yellow Card report.
Does reporting to you count as reporting to the MHRA?: We record what you tell us and we meet our own obligations as a pharmacy, but you should also submit a Yellow Card yourself. Your report is in your own words, and that is worth more than a summary of it.
Will reporting stop my treatment?: Reporting does not by itself change anything you have been prescribed. What may change it is a prescriber’s review of what you have reported, which is a clinical decision and is explained to you.