The Health Authority Abu Dhabi (Haad) has called on healthcare providers to submit reports detailing patients’ adverse reactions to drugs or immunisations as well as any medication errors.
The announcement comes as part of Haad’s local pharmacovigilance programme to monitor adverse reactions to drugs and minimise the occurrence of medication errors throughout the emirate.
Cases that should be reported include unexpected side effects, the misuse of medicines, overdoses and unexpected reactions between two types of medicines as well as the lack of effective treatments.
A total of 616 cases of adverse reactions to medication were reported in the emirate of Abu Dhabi last yea. In addition, there were also 1,102 reports of medication errors.
Antibiotics were responsible for 47 per cent of adverse drug reactions in Abu Dhabi, followed by anti-inflammatory medications, which resulted in 19 per cent of these reactions, while painkillers and gastrointestinal drugs each accounted for 5 per cent, according to reports sent to the Pharmacovigilance Centre between 2013 and 2015.
Physicians submitted the greatest number of reports on adverse reactions, followed by pharmacists and nurses.
Dr Khaled Al Jaberi, director of the Health Regulation Department at Haad, stressed the authority's efforts to facilitate and unify communication channels and to develop a combined database for reports.
“The authority encourages all healthcare providers to use their electronic reporting system, which will ease the reporting process, as well as data centralisation and analysis,” said Dr Al Jaberi.
In order to improve the quality of healthcare services and safety standards, "Haad strives to implement the pharmacovigilance programme to guarantee the quality and safety of medicines for the nationals and residents of the emirate".