How general practitioners store vaccines. A survey in south-western Sydney.

Objective: To describe how general practitioners store vaccines.

Design: A cross-sectional descriptive survey of general practices and observation of storage procedures for vaccines.

Setting: South-western Sydney between September and December 1993.

Participants: 232 randomly selected general practitioners working in south-western Sydney, of whom 76% responded to a questionnaire. Vaccine storage was observed in 20 general practices.

Results: At 80% of practices, one person was responsible for vaccine storage. Only 30% of respondents used a vaccine-only refrigerator. Only 16% of respondents had a means of measuring temperature, while 5% kept a record of refrigerator temperature. Of the general practices that were monitored, the measured temperature of 70% of the refrigerators used for storing vaccines was within the recommended range of 2 degrees C-8 degrees C.

Conclusions: Vaccine storage would improve in general practices in south-western Sydney if vaccine-only refrigerators were used and temperature was monitored with maximum-minimum thermometers.