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Adverse
Medicine Events Line - Find out all about us....
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Background to the Adverse Medicine Events (AME) Line
What is the Adverse
Medicine Events Line?
When does the service operate?
Who operates the
Adverse Medicine Events Line?
How is your privacy protected?
Background to the Adverse Medicine Events (AME) Line
Medications are a part of everyday life for most Australians
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1995 National Health Survey showed that 74% of women and 63% of men took some form of medication over a two-week period;
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Australian Office of Complementary Medicines have reported that more than 60% of Australians use at least one complementary health care product each year.
Associated with high use is a high risk of something going wrong …
According to the Second National Report on Patient Safety from the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care, an estimated 2 -3% or 140,000 hospital admissions in Australia each year are due to adverse medicine events (AMEs). Many of these originate in the community.
Documentation on adverse medicine events is poor
Reducing the incidence of AMEs has been difficult as there was no official channel for Australian consumers to document such events. Of the 12,000 reports received by the Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee (ADRAC) annually, only a fraction are reported directly by members of the public.
A way forward …
The AME Line has been established to provide an avenue for the community to report their suspected AMEs, possible errors or “near misses” with their medicines. Please help us to collect the data to improve the safety of how medicines are being used.
What is the Adverse Medicine Events Line?
The AME Line is a new, interactive service through which consumers can seek information about or report adverse events associated with medicines. By phoning 1300 134 237 Australians can report possible adverse drug reactions, medicine errors or “near misses” to experienced drug information pharmacists.
The AME Line will:
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provide a system for consumers to directly report their adverse experiences with medicines;
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encourage consumers to report adverse medicine events;
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promote openness and accuracy of information about adverse medicine events;
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identify areas and trends in adverse medicine events to know when, where and how things go wrong; and ultimately
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integrate such information into health systems to improve their safety and quality.
When does the service operate?
The Adverse Medicine Events Line is available to all Australians for the cost of a local call. Hours of operation are Monday to Friday 9:00am to 5:00pm AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time).
To improve service access during operating hours, if the lines are busy, the caller can leave contact details on voicemail and AME Line staff will return their call.
Who operates the Adverse Medicine Events Line?
The Adverse Medicine Events Line is operated by clinical and drug information pharmacists from Mater Misericordiae Health Services, South Brisbane on behalf of The National Prescribing Service.
How is your privacy protected?
When you contact the Adverse Medicine Events Line not only do we respect your privacy, it is protected by law. All information provided by you is confidential and cannot be accessed by anyone else without your permission. All records related to calls are stored securely.
Funded by The National Prescribing Service, operated by Mater Misericordiae Health Services Brisbane Limited