'Holby City' Plotline Should Set Alarms Ringing For Hospital, Pharmacy and Laboratory Managers

A plotline from the popular BBC1 TV drama 'Holby City' has urgent vital safety lessons for the medical and scientific communities, says Robin Gregson, Sales and Marketing Director of Labcold.

In the long-running storyline, a vital medical implant is rendered dangerous when an over-zealous employee on the look-out for carbon savings decides to turn off the refrigerator in which it was being stored, as she thought it was empty. Unfortunately, no-one notices the error until it is too late and a patient suffers as a result.

“This really emphasises the crucial importance of using specially designed, installed and maintained refrigeration equipment for sensitive medical and scientific uses,” said Robin. “Ironically, the appliance featured on the programme was a Labcold model which has an audible alarm which will go off if the temperature rises or falls past set limits, even if the unit is unplugged. But showing that would not have made for such good drama!”

In one recent UK incident, 133 children were re-vaccinated because the original vaccines that were administered were potentially inactive, due being stored in a part of the fridge chamber where the temperature was too low (even though the fridge thermometer was apparently reading the correct temperature). This suggests the use of an inappropriately designed fridge, lack of calibration or a malfunction.

Another example happened in Multnomah County, Oregon in the United States where between 2003 and 2006 more than 6,500 people were given a vaccine that was improperly refrigerated and may have been ineffective. The problem was due to staff not monitoring the temperatures within refrigerators used for vaccine storage. As a result, the local health authority has replaced all the fridges – which were domestic models – with professional pharmaceutical refrigerators equipped with computerised temperature measurement. These set off audible alarms, both in the clinics and at a central office, should the temperatures vary from standard.

“At present, hospitals and pharmacies are working to guidelines in which the inclusion of alarms that will alert staff if the temperature in a medical or scientific refrigerator rises or falls below set ranges is only a recommendation, not a requirement. But all laboratory, pharmacy and hospital managers should assess which of their refrigerators are likely to store crucial, highly temperature-critical materials and choose models with alarms. It's better to be safe than sorry,” added Robin.