{"id":50647,"date":"2025-08-07T15:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T15:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/50647\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T15:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T15:07:09","slug":"more-than-half-of-scots-experience-side-effects-from-medication-survey-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/50647\/","title":{"rendered":"More than half of Scots experience side-effects from medication, survey finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scotland\u2019s body for healthcare improvement has encouraged the public to take park in a scheme that tracks the side-effects of medications.<\/p>\n

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) made the plea after revealing that just 10% of Scots who experience adverse effects to prescribed medicines are reporting them to the Yellow Card scheme.<\/p>\n

The statistic was taken from a study which sampled 560 individuals across the country, asking them about medicine safety, long-term health problems, pre-conception health and care.<\/p>\n

The report recommended more awareness surrounding the Yellow Card scheme, which is run by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to improve on underreporting of side-effects of various drugs.<\/p>\n

About 57% of sample members said they had experienced a side-effect or unintended effect from a medicine.<\/p>\n

Those who had experienced side-effects were asked if they had spoken to anyone about what they experienced.<\/p>\n

Of these, 84% had spoken to a doctor, nurse or pharmacist, 29% had spoken to family and friends and 10% had reported it through the Yellow Card scheme.<\/p>\n

Laura Fulton, chief pharmacist with HIS, said: \u201cThe Yellow Card scheme collects and monitors information on suspected safety concerns involving healthcare products, of which medicines are a significant contributor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is extremely important as it flags side-effects that previously have not been reported, for example. It is vital to improve our understanding of medicines and safeguard patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would encourage patients, members of the public and healthcare professionals to proactively utilise the Yellow Card scheme and report any concern as soon as they can.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will undoubtedly help others both now and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Simon Maxwell, medical director of the Yellow Card Centre Scotland, said: \u201cI am pleased that HIS report recognised the important role that the Yellow Card scheme has played, and will continue to play, in safeguarding public health in Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince its inception in the 1960s in the wake of the thalidomide disaster, the scheme has been helping to shine a light on important but less common side-effects to medicines that have not been fully clarified at the time of regulatory approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was particularly evident following the rapid approval of the Covid-19 vaccines in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the ability to report side-effects to the scheme was originally restricted to medical professionals, any member of the public can now report, and those reports are making a growing contribution to the scheme.<\/p>\n

\u201cI welcome the report\u2019s focus on increasing public awareness of the scheme as a mechanism whereby all citizens can all make a contribution to medicines safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

STV News is now on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

Get all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n

Follow STV News <\/a>Follow STV News on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n

\"WhatsApp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scotland\u2019s body for healthcare improvement has encouraged the public to take park in a scheme that tracks the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,137,490],"class_list":{"0":"post-50647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-medication"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}