Medical fridge temperatures need to be regulated and controlled to ensure the drugs within them are safely stored at their optimum temperature.
If vaccines/drugs aren’t stored in the correct environment, their effectiveness cannot be guaranteed, and therefore they need to be disposed of. Spoiled vaccines can cost medical practices thousands of pounds, so it’s important to ensure your fridges are correctly calibrated to avoid any costly mistakes.
Correct calibration is especially important this winter. With many healthcare practices stocking large numbers of vital flu and Covid vaccines, it’s more important than ever to ensure your cold chain is well protected to prevent jeopardising public health.
Optimum medical fridge temperature
The NHS Green Book 2013 requires medical fridges to store medicines and vaccines at a temperature between +2°C and +8°C. Ideally, practices should aim for a temperature of +5°C within their fridges – the midpoint in the +2°C to +8°C range.
Vaccine/drug effectiveness cannot be guaranteed if these temperatures fluctuate.
To comply with UK regulations, as set out in the NHS Green Book 2013, medical fridge temperatures need recording daily and periodic internal fridge temperature checks are also required using a secondary temperature monitoring device.
Over time, the capabilities of measuring instruments can decline, resulting in the accuracy of measuring equipment falling outside acceptable levels. This is why medical fridges and secondary temperature monitoring devices need to be calibrated annually.
What is medical fridge calibration?
Medical fridge calibration is the process of comparing the temperature display reading of your fridge against another piece of testing equipment that has been checked against a verified source to establish accuracy.
The calibration process will need to be carried out by a trained engineer to guarantee accuracy. The engineer will check the readout temperature of your fridge is in line with the actual temperature inside the fridge using a pre-calibrated temperature measuring device. The engineer will also check the accuracy of your secondary temperature monitoring device and recalibrate the equipment if necessary.
Why CoolMed Calibration?
At CoolMed our calibration service has always been a top priority for us, that is why we employ our own fully trained EBME engineers who all have a wealth of industry experience.
Our engineers are all safe contractor approved, DBS checked, and use state of the art UKAS equipment during the calibration process to ensure we provide the best service and the most accurate temperature readings.
Thanks to today’s technology, medical fridge calibration is a straight-forward process, so the disruption to your healthcare practice during calibration checks will be minimal.
More information on our calibration service can be found here: https://coolmedcalibration.co.uk/.
Alternatively, if you’d like to speak to a member of our team regarding our calibration service, please contact us.
