The Importance Of Annual Medical Fridge Servicing

Getting your medical fridge serviced annually is an important part of making sure it’s working well and keeping vaccines and medicines at the right temperature.

Vaccines need to be stored between 2°C and 8°C to prevent them from degrading and becoming less effective. They also need to be protected from light because prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light can cause them to lose their potency. What's more, ineffective vaccines need to be disposed of which wastes money. 

Storing your vaccine in a specialised medical fridge, rather than a domestic one, helps to keep them at the right temperature. When you buy your fridge, make sure you also have a maintenance contract that includes annual fridge servicing and thermometer calibration. This will help ensure your fridge maintains its temperature and the thermometer gives accurate readings.

But if you notice the temperature is out of range then get it serviced immediately rather than waiting for your annual fridge service. JPen Medical finds at least 10% of all vaccine fridges they inspect annually are not cooling to the recommended temperatures.

Set up and maintenance

To help keep your vaccines at the right temperature it's important to set up and maintain your fridge correctly.

To do so you should make sure your fridge is:

Ventilated and away from heat sources. Make sure there's plenty of space all around the fridge so heat exchange units and radiators can give off warm air.
Cleaned regularly, along with a more in-depth annual clean.

Free of any ice build-up. If defrosting is necessary, the vaccines should be kept in a medical grade cool box or back-up medical fridge.
Installed with a switchless socket or clearly labelled vaccine refrigerator plug to avoid accidentally interrupting its electricity supply.
Safely installed by carrying out visual inspections and portable appliance testing (PAT) in line with the Electricity and Work Regulations (1989)

Storing Vaccines

When you store your vaccines, make sure you check the guidance given by the manufacturer's specific product characteristics (SPC) and follow these best practice guidelines:

Store all vaccines in their original packaging so you always have the batch number and expiry date to hand.
Rotate the vaccines so those with the latest expiry dates are always at the front of the fridge and are used first.

Reset the thermometer each time you carry out a daily temperature check.
Don’t store food, drinks, or clinical specimens in the same fridge.

It’s important never to freeze vaccines because this can irreversibly denature the proteins in the vaccine and make them unusable. It can also cause the emulsions in the vaccines to become unstable or produce hairline cracks in the vial or pre-filled syringe which could potentially contaminate the contents and lead to adverse reactions.

Recording Temperature Checks

You can use a digital thermometer with an alarm or a data logger to help record and maintain the right temperature. It’s also a good idea to have a second thermometer that’s not integrated into the fridge, in case the electrical supply is accidentally lost.

It’s important to keep records of daily temperature checks on a log sheet alongside the vaccine refrigerator. Make sure you note down the fridge’s unique identifier, such as its serial number.

During Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections, inspectors will ask to see evidence of how you maintain the cold chain, so you need to keep records of regular servicing, defrosting, cleaning, calibration, and electrical testing.

The records should cover the full storage history of any products in the fridge. Most vaccines have a shelf life of four years or more so records for around five years are generally needed.

Whenever you notice any temperature out of range, report it immediately and quarantine the affected vaccines at the right temperature. Then carry out a risk assessment informed by thorough knowledge of the vaccines to decide if they’re still safe to use. You can get guidance on this from UK Medicines Information.

You can find further details about cold chain compliance in line with Public Health England requirements in the NHS Green Book 2013.

For more information on medical fridge servicing, you can email us on info@jpenmedical.co.uk or call 0333 005 0486