10 May Change to Vaccine Fridge Servicing Regulations?
Protecting your cold chain and maintaining delivery of vaccines throughout the year is an important process in the efficient running of any practice or surgery. Historically doctors surgeries have annually had a calibration of their vaccine fridge at the same time as the calibration of all of their medical equipment. For years there has always been a guideline in the NHS Green Book on P17 stating ”there is a maintenance contract that allows for at least yearly servicing and calibration of the temperature gauge ”
Early in 2018, we experienced a greater than average demand from existing and new calibration customers for full vaccine fridge servicing as this had been highlighted by either CQC inspectors or Infection control auditors. this demand grew and spread across the whole of England in 2018 and now a year on CQC have added vaccine fridge servicing to their website as you can see here under the subtitle The Vaccine Fridge which states you should have a maintenance contract in place that includes at least yearly servicing. Please note in some instances we have also found that insurance companies also require annual pharmacy fridge servicing for compliance.
For a larger surgery, the schedule we would recommend is to have your fridges calibrated when one of our friendly engineers attends to calibrate all of your medical equipment on site than at a 6 monthly interval have a full service thus allowing them to be tested twice annually. Don’t be mistaken either by the terminology your provider may use, a vaccine fridge full service is an in-depth process that takes time and expertise to complete and will if completed annually expand the life expectancy of your fridge. We have worked closely with both fridge manufacturers and CQC inspectors and a comprehensive service sheet is completed by the engineer and left with the surgery for full compliance.
For more information or to find a date and time that works for you to have your vaccine fridges serviced please give us a call and we will be happy to advise and assist with your inquiry.
