Like so many professions, veterinary practitioners have to contend with an ever-increasing burden of red tape, regulations and guidelines, such as the latest VMD Code of Practice, (Oct 2007).

The BVA provides useful advice and support in achieving compliance in its publication ‘Good practice guide on veterinary medicines’, but it is easy for busy vets and practice managers to sometimes miss important details or be unclear on how to actually achieve compliance, especially given the enormity of the detail within the guide.

Help Is At Hand…

Clauses covering the storage of temperature-sensitive vaccines are easily overlooked and even when discovered do not supply you with a specific solution. Fortunately help is at hand from Labcold, the specialist British manufacturer of medical, scientific and laboratory refrigeration – a company with over 30 years experience assisting customers in meeting similar requirements regarding human vaccines.

With human vaccines there have been widely reported incidents where incorrect storage has led to significant numbers of patients requiring revaccination. To date, the veterinary profession has not seen these types of unfortunate headline and Labcold aims to help keep it that way.

Domestic products are adequately designed to store food items, as well as conform to the many regulations surrounding this function.

However, they often feature low-tech temperature control mechanisms and components. Factors such as accuracy of control, uniformity of temperature within the storage chamber and speed of recovery after door openings are just not as important to a domestic fridge designer, compared to more basic requirements like how salad vegetables can be kept fresh.

The BVA Good Practice Guide - Standard Operating Procedure 04 on the storage of medicinal products in permanent premises says as follows.

Professional Solutions…

Labcold has recently launched a fully re-designed range of vaccine and pharmaceutical storage refrigerators that come in a range of sizes, all offering stable and closely controlled temperature with door lock and built-in temperature monitoring. In addition there are useful options such as glass doors, an alarm that sounds should the fridge temperature stray outside the pre-set limits and a handy new divided-drawer system.

For further infomation please visit www.carltonsales.co.uk or phone our sales team on (01793) 512550.