Yellow Card Centre Wales' Medicine Safety Day 2024
10 July 2024
It was a day of great collaboration and learning at the Yellow Card Centre Wales’ annual Medicine Safety Day.
The event also marked 60 years since the very first Yellow Card was received in 1964 following the thalidomide disaster.
Since then more than one million Yellow Card reports have been made, making medicines and medical devices safer for patients.
Jointly held with the All Wales Therapeutics and Toxicology Centre (AWTTC) the event was attended by Medicines Safety Officers, Yellow Card Champions, pharmacists/nurses with an interest in medicines safety, and colleagues from the MHRA and National Poisons Information Service (NPIS).
YCC Wales Medical Director Dr Alison Thomas welcomed the audience and introduced the plethora of interesting speakers.
Starting the day off was Jamie Hayes, Director of Welsh Medicines Resource Centre who gave an energetic talk entitled Presence, Influence and Status – Making an Impact on Medicines Safety.
Professor James Coulson, presented next on Forensic Pharmacology as a source of pharmacovigilance before Anne Hinchliffe, National Contingency Planning Pharmacist for NWSSP and Manon Owen, Integrated Medicines Directorate Pharmacist at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board delved into medicines shortages.
We were also delighted to welcome Hannah Rees, Associate Signal Assessor, Safety and Surveillance from the MHRA who gave an update on their latest work.
During the day winners of our poster competition were announced and thanks go to all entrants and Alana Adams, Chair of YCC Wales Advisory Group who had the difficult job of judging.
- 1st Luke Johnson-Brown, CTMUHB now at CAVUHB – Increasing Yellow Card reporting on AMU: A Secondary Care Quality Improvement Project.
- 2nd Rhian Eleri Jones BCUHB – Improving Yellow Card reporting in GP practices 2023-24.
- 3rd Stephanie Williams, Robyn Griffiths and Rhianydd Jones, Velindre Cancer Centre – Changing the way hypersensitivity reactions to Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) are reported within the day case areas.
As well as viewing the poster displays, attendees also had the opportunity to visit a number of information stands hosted by: YCC Wales, AWTTC, NPIS, Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), Your Medicines, Your Health (YMYH) and Health, Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW).
Next Ann Slee, External Advisor to the Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) Service Transformation Programme and James Goddard, DHCW Hospital e-prescribing lead explained the EPMA system and what it means for colleagues.
Finally, Dr Laurence Gray, Consultant Clinical Pharmacologist at CAVUHB along with Specialists in Poisons Information at NPIS Ella Edwards and Nathaniel Keymer, unveiled some Medicines Safety Trends.
Dr Alison Thomas reflected on the day as she made her closing statement and thanked all those who attended and took part in making the day a great success.