Vaccine complacency warning
Released 28/11/2011
With the government scrapping its flu campaign for the second year running, practices are warned not to fall complacent when it comes to vaccine storage
Following the government's decision to scrap its advertising awareness campaign for the flu vaccine for the second year running, experts are warning practices not to be complacent when it comes to vaccine storage.
"Despite the government being forced to reinstate a national advertising campaign on good hygiene as the death toll from seasonal flu escalated last year, they are placing yet more reliance on GPs to combat flu," argued Jon Usher of Lec Medical.
"With the NHS announcing an emergency stockpile of 400,000 vaccines to avoid a repeat of last year's shortage, GPs are under pressure to keep adequate supplies at all times."
According to Usher, those practices and pharmacies that fail to store vaccines safely are not only at risk of making costly mistakes, they are compromising patient safety.
"It is imperative that the correct refrigeration equipment is in place not only to cope with demand, but above all to ensure the safe administering of vaccines," he explained.
According to LEC, it is still a common to find practices not using purpose-built pharmacy fridges for storage, with some even failing to check the temperature of the fridge.
With CQC registration looming, and the safe storage of medicines one of the five essential requirements, suitable vaccine storage with accurate temperature records, they say, is vital.
"As well as the performance of a non-medical fridge being totally inadequate, domestic fridges raise serious issues of safety and security, and if the contents are spoilt, the resulting wastage could prove expensive at best, but lethal at worst," warned Usher.
Specialist medical pharmacy fridges are designed to maintain an internal temperature between +2º C and +8ºC and, unlike domestic fridges, they come with a variety of features to ensure that they stay at that constant temperature.
Likewise, good quality medical pharmacy fridges also come with a variety of alarms, including audible and visual warnings for high and low temperatures.
An ‘open door' alarm helps ensure that the contents of the fridge are safe and secure by alerting the user if the door has been left open for more than two minutes.
These high-pitched alarms can provide the necessary time to act on the problem and possibly save the contents.
Restricting unauthorised access is also crucial, as even the safest of drugs can be dangerous when they fall in the wrong hands. Hence, vaccines are best stored in good quality medical fridges that come complete with a sturdy lock and a limited number of keys.
Usher concluded: "Specialist pharmacy fridges are more expensive than those designed for domestic use, but taking into account the value of the contents and the potential consequences should vaccines not be stored safely and effectively, it's a relatively small price to pay to ensure pharmacists are offering vaccines they can have full confidence in."
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