From the daily Telegraph ; Alert over vaccine storage

GPs and hospitals have been warned over widespread incorrect storage of vaccines after an audit found 40 per cent were kept at the wrong temperature which may affect their potency, an NHS watchdog has warned.

A 'rapid response' alert issued to the NHS and private sector healthcare facilities said there could be a widespread problem with vaccine storage rendering the jabs ineffective and leaving patients vulnerable to diseases they thought they were protected against.

The National Patient Safety Agency report said it was not possible to determine if patients have been harmed by the incorrect storage of vaccines although there is 'potential for this to happen'.

Problems included delays in putting products away so the cold chain was broken, fridges being turned off, the door being let open, lack of temperature monitoring on refrigerators and appliances unable to maintain the correct temperature.

In some cases food and drinks were found alongside vaccines including one instance where soft cheese that was six months out of date was found in the same refrigerator as vaccines, the report from the NPSA said.

A two-year audit carried out in Nottinghamshire County Primary Care Trust found a widespread problem, with 40 per cent of vaccine stored outside the correct temperature range, and 500 patients were recalled for new vaccinations from just two GP practices, the report said.

The NPSA searched their database of all clinical incidents and near misses and found 260 reported problems with vaccine storage bertween January 2005 and April 2009. During this time 50million doses of childhood vaccines were distributed across Britain.

However the report said this was likely to under-estimate the scale of the problem.

The document continued: "The literature also suggests that this is a well-known and reoccurring problem. Vaccination storage problems are believed to be underreported as a patient safety issue, and the literature suggests that the administration of vaccines with suboptimal potency because of cold chain failure and the extent of the wastage are much greater than reflected by data.

"Incorrect storage of vaccines is not only wasteful and costly to the NHS, but the failure to store vaccines correctly can reduce vaccine effectiveness and cause undue vaccine failures.

"In this way, failure to store vaccinations appropriately represents a threat to patient safety."

Dr Bruce Warner, Head of Primary Care at the NPSA, said: “Thousands of vaccines are administered safely to patients of all ages each day. However, we have received reports of preventable incidents where vaccines have been stored at incorrect temperatures which in some cases can significantly reduce their effectiveness.

"Our recommended actions within this latest Rapid Response Report should make systems more safer for patients.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "It is essential that vaccines are stored at the correct temperature and this is set out in current guidelines, which we expect the NHS to follow at all times.

"However, the extremely low level of vaccine-preventable diseases in this country point to the effectiveness of our vaccines, and indicates that failure to store vaccines correctly is not a widespread issue."