Drug side-effects kill 3 people a day
THREE people a day die from the side-effects of medicines they have been prescribed, figures have revealed.
Last year 1,198 deaths were put down to adverse drug reactions – up by almost 100 on the previous five years.
A further 12 patients a day, 4,492 in total, are admitted to hospital.
The figures are gathered using the Government’s yellow card scheme where reports about side-effects are sent to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
Such adverse drug reactions account for around one in 16 hospital admissions and cost the NHS an estimated £466million a year.
Paracetamol is the third most implicated drug, linked to 33 deaths last year.
The arthritis treatment Infliximab, is at No2 in the list, linked to 79 deaths.
Clozapine, an anti-psychotic drug sold under the brand name Clorzaril, is most linked to deaths. Used to treat schizophrenia, it was associated with 265 deaths last year.