A Guide to: Correctly Stocking a Medical Fridge

Vaccines and medicines are expensive, therefore, it is essential to store them correctly in order to guarantee their effectiveness and avoid costly mistakes.

Stocking Medical Fridges

At CoolMed, all our medical fridges have been designed to ensure the correct internal conditions exist for stocking vaccines and medicines – from specialist ventilator covers to wire shelves that ensure good internal air circulation.

Tips on how to correctly stock a medical fridge:

• Always leave a 1cm gap between vaccines to ensure air can circulate within the fridge unit.
• Do not stack vaccines above the fan. This could block or restrict airflow around the fridge.
• Do not stock vaccines against the back or side walls of a fridge. This can result in vaccines freezing and becoming spoiled.
• Medical fridges should be stocked at 75% capacity or under to achieve optimum fridge performance – as recommended by the MHRA.
• Only store vaccines and medicines in medical fridges. Storing food or biological samples within a dedicated vaccine fridge can lead to the medical contents becoming contaminated.
• Add new stock to the back of your medical fridge. This will ensure older items with shorter use-by dates are kept at the front and used first.
• Always restock medical fridges as quickly as possible. When the door is open, warm air can enter the fridge and affect the internal temperature.
• Always ensure medical fridges are kept clean, both inside and out.

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.

At CoolMed, all our fridges come with an inbuilt iCool temperature probe to accurately monitor and stabilise drug temperatures. If the inside temperature of your CoolMed fridge fluctuates outside the +2°C and +8°C range for any reason, an alarm will sound immediately so you can take action.

Contact Us

If you’d like to speak to a member of our team regarding how best to stock your medical fridge, please contact us here.