Ranchi: The Jharkhand State Pharmacy Council (JSPC) has directed all medical shops, govt and private hospitals, and educational institutions teaching pharmacy located across the state to prominently display QR codes detailing adverse drug reaction (ADR) on their premises at the earliest.The council, in an order on Saturday, directed the facilities to ensure public participation in prompt reporting of ADRs to strengthen patients’ safety and enable drug regulatory authorities to identify potential risks and strengthen measures to curb those.The directive follows an MoU signed between the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) and the JSPC under the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India last November.JSPC registrar-cum-secretary Prashant Kumar Pandey said, “The initiative is aimed at making it easier for patients and the public to report any adverse reactions experienced after taking medicines by simply scanning the QR code.”“Many times patients experience adverse side effects such as swelling on body parts, itching, allergy, headache and various others after consuming medicines that usually must not have any side effects. Although some medicines have side effects, it appears adversely in some patients, indicating some issues with medicine composition. In such situation, consumers need a mechanism to report such anomalies to authorities so that the issues can be rectified,” Pandey added.The JSPC registrar said that by scanning the QR code, patients would be enabled to upload prescriptions, medicine doses, medicine details and other relevant details from anywhere in the state. Jharkhand has around 20,000 medical shops across the state.“The grievances will then reach IPC, ensuring action against the drug manufacturing companies if any anomalies are found in medicines. The initiative will promote safe use of medicines and enhance vigilance on medicines,” Pandey said.He, however, said that no deadline has been fixed yet for ensuring display of the QR codes. However, letters have been sent to the state health department, drugs control directorate and other authorities concerned to ensure prompt compliance with the order.As per the directive, retail and wholesale medical shops have been directed to display the QR code at clearly visible places so patients and the general public can conveniently report suspected adverse drug reactions. The hospitals have been asked to display the QR code in OPDs, IPDs and hospital pharmacies, and registration counters.