KARACHI, Oct 25: The government will soon make it mandatory upon all hospitals to submit reports of adverse drug reaction, keep record and develop a system, said Dr Farzana Chaudhry, chief drug controller, ministry of health, on Saturday.

She was speaking at the concluding session of a two-day national seminar on “good clinical, prescribing, pharmacy practices, rational use of drugs and ADR reporting”, jointly organized by the federal ministry of health and WHO at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi.

She said a special cell for ADR reporting had been set up at the health ministry to coordinate with pharmaceutical industry, hospitals and doctors, as well as paramedics.

She said the ministry had earlier distributed ADR reporting forms to various hospitals, but, so far, the government had received not a single report.

“There are fears these reports will be used against the senders including doctors, pharmacists or hospitals, but it is not the fact. We want to develop an ADR monitoring system. I hope pharmacists will cooperate with us in developing an ADR monitoring system.”

She said that the health ministry had developed a form report on suspected serious adverse drug reactions, which will be provided to all small and major hospitals. They would be required to immediately report any adverse effect of any drug to the government.”

Earlier, experts highlighted importance of pharmacists, nurses and manufacturers of medicines. A workshop on ADR reporting/adverse event reporting was held.—PPI