HOW GENERAL-PRACTITIONERS STORE VACCINES - A SURVEY IN SOUTH-WESTERN SYDNEY

Objective: To describe how general practitioners store vaccines. Desig n: A cross-sectional descriptive survey of general practices and obser vation of storage procedures for vaccines. Setting: South-western Sydn ey between September and December 1993. Participants: 232 randomly sel ected general practitioners working in south-western Sydney, of whom 7 6% responded to a questionnaire. Vaccine storage was observed in 20 ge neral practices. Results: At 80% of practices, one person was responsi ble for vaccine storage. Only 30% of respondents used a vaccine-only r efrigerator. Only 16% of respondents had a means of measuring temperat ure, while 5% kept a record of refrigerator temperature. Of the genera l practices that were monitored, the measured temperature of 70% of th e refrigerators used for storing vaccines was within the recommended r ange of 2 degrees C-8 degrees C. Conclusions: Vaccine storage would im prove in general practices in south-western Sydney if vaccine-only ref rigerators were used and temperature was monitored with maximum-minimu m thermometers.