Improving vaccination cold chain in the general practice setting.

Background: This study compared temperature control in different types of vaccine storing refrigerators in general practice and tested knowledge of general practice staff in vaccine storage requirements.

Methods: Temperature data loggers were set to serially record the temperature within vaccine refrigerators in 28 general practices, recording at 12 minute intervals over a period of 10 days on each occasion. A survey of vaccine storage knowledge and records of divisions of general practice immunisation contacts were also obtained.