Medical Fridge Calibration Made Easy
11th January 2020
Medical fridge temperatures are regulated and controlled to ensure that drugs are stored safely at the correct temperature according to manufacturers’ recommendations. The NHS Green Book 2013 requires your medical fridge to store medicines/vaccines at a temperature of between +2 °c to +8°c degrees. Over time, the capabilities of measuring instruments can wander resulting in the accuracy of the equipment falling outside acceptable levels. Hence the requirement for medical fridges and secondary temperature monitoring devices to be calibrated annually *(see NHS regulations below).
Calibration is the process of comparing the display reading of your measuring equipment against another piece of testing equipment which itself has been checked against a known and verified source to establish a level of accuracy. The usual traceable source is UCAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) standards.
The calibration of your refrigerator requires a trained engineer to annually check the readout temperature is in line with the actual temperature inside using a temperature measuring device that itself has been calibrated and traceable back to UKAS.
To comply with UK regulations*, daily (or twice daily) fridge digital readout temperatures need recording and periodic internal fridge temperature checks are also required using a secondary device to ensure the temperature readout matches what is actually happening inside where drugs are stored.
Your secondary temperature monitoring device, perhaps an electronic thermometer probe inside the fridge, must provide a display value accurate to 0.1 of a degree. But without automatic temperature adjustment, this device must also be checked, or validated, against another piece of equipment that has also been checked against a known source – traceable to UKAS.
Unlike some manufacturers, Shoreline provides a free manufacturer’s certificate of calibration (traceable back to UKAS) for all pharmacy and portable refrigerators to cover your fridge/portable for a year. Included within our price is 4 years subsequent on-site calibration, and for pharmacy fridges only, 5 years parts & labour warranty.
A Certificate of Calibration must meet Care Quality Commission Inspection.
*REGULATION NOTES:
A copy of the NHS Green Book 2013 medical refrigeration can be viewed here: NHS Green Book 2013
For further details and advice, please contact Shoreline (UK) Ltd “Tech Support Team”
Shoreline Medical Refrigeration, Littlehampton, West Sussex
Tel: 01903 733877 ask@shoreline-medical.co.uk
