GPs not reporting adverse drug reactions
Chronic under reporting by doctors and hospitals of serious adverse reactions to drugs, may be creating a false picture of which medications pose a threat to Australians’ health, according to a report in The Australian newspaper.
Of the estimated 500,000 cases a year nationally, of people becoming sick because of a drug they are taking, GPs report less than 2% to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
New research, citing Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data, reveals that of more than 101,000 cases of adverse drug reactions treated in Australian hospitals last year, only 3% were reported to the TGA.
The study by Curtin University pharmacy researcher, Con Berbatis, shows that reports by GPs to the TGA have halved between 1999 and last year.
Reports from other sources, such as pharmacists, dentists and state health departments have grown in that time, but not enough to make up for the drop in reports by GPs.
Jan McLucas, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Health Minister, who is responsible for the administration of the TGA, said: “In essence we don’t know whether the current monitoring system is receiving enough reports to capture all the adverse events that are occurring.”
The TGA receives only between 10,000 and 12,000 reports of adverse drug reactions annually. The biggest drop has been in reports from GPs, something Senator McLucas said was a problem and a mystery.
The adverse drug reaction reporting system is voluntary, excepting drug companies, who are obliged to notify any known adverse reactions to their products.
Mandatory reporting is fraught because the TGA would be unable to cope with the sheer numbers of new and often frivolous notifications.
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