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MedSafetyWeek, a global campaign initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise public awareness about the safety and proper use of medicines, is taking place from Monday 6 to Sunday 12 November 2023.
On this occasion, Luxembourg's Ministry of Health recalled that any medication taken may cause side effects. As such, there are measures in place to monitor its security. Any person (patient or healthcare professional) can report a suspected adverse reaction to the competent authorities. The goal of safety monitoring is to obtain more information about known adverse reactions and to discover new ones. By reporting adverse reactions suspected of being linked to a medication, noted the ministry, everyone participates in the identification of medication safety problems, so that the necessary measures are put in place and to better protect the population.
Patients can report adverse effects to their GP or pharmacist. In addition, they can report these side effects themselves by completing the form available on Guichet.lu: www.guichet.lu/pharmacovigilance.
In Luxembourg, two institutions process reports of adverse effects, namely the pharmacy and medicines department of the Health Directorate and the Regional Pharmacovigilance Centre in Nancy, France.
Like last year, the 2023 edition of MedSafetyWeek once again calls on Luxembourg pharmacists as ambassadors for medicine safety. Communication materials will be made available in pharmacies to raise public awareness about this topic. Patients, but also healthcare professionals, are encouraged to actively participate in medication safety by reporting any adverse effects related to taking medication.
The ministry noted that each report allows the relevant authorities to collect more information on the use of medicines. Thus, if a new risk appears after taking a medication, the public authorities can decide to modify its use in order to ensure patient safety.
