Extreme weather warnings: Protect your vaccines

Dear Practice, 

With flood warnings in areas surrounding Sydney, power outages can be more common. To check emergency evacuation orders see NSW SES; weather conditions see Bureau of Meteorology; planned and unplanned power outage areas, see Ausgrid.

Ensuring your practice is prepared in the event of a power outage

It is important that all staff are aware of your practice’s cold chain back-up plan for power outages and are familiar with protocols for cold chain breaches. Review the following checklist to ensure your practice and staff are prepared.

Checklist

• Ensure all staff hold a certificate in NSW Health Vaccine Storage and Cold Chain Management online training module.
• Ensure that staff at the practice are familiar with the process for Managing a Power Failure - 'Strive for 5'.
• Ensure that the practice has written protocols for managing power outage and cold chain breach.
• Ensure that the practice has the required equipment on site to respond to a power failure.

Equipment

All practices MUST have one of the following alternative vaccine storage options in the event of a power failure. The alternative storage must have the capacity to store ALL VACCINES currently held in your vaccine fridge(s):

1. A manual back-up power supply (e.g. generator)
2. A automated back-up power supply (e.g. battery/solar back-up)
3. A monitored refrigerator offsite (e.g. at a local hospital or pharmacy) — ensure that an agreement has been put in place with the relevant organisation before the event, and also consider that this organisation may be affected by the same power failure
4. A cooler — each facility should ensure that they have enough coolers for an emergency.

If your practice experiences a cold chain breach:

1. For COVID-19 vaccines: Contact the Vaccine Operations Centre (VOC)

Vaccine Operations Centre (VOC): 1800 318 208 COVID19VaccineOperationsCentre@Health.gov.au

The VOC hours of operation are between 7.00 am to 10.00 pm AEST (Currently 9pm)

2. For routine NIP vaccines: Contact the Public Health Unit (PHU)  

Public Health Unit: 1300 066 055 
Fill out cold chain breach and vaccine wastage reporting form and submit to PHU along with data logger report and min/max temp chart. Forms must be completed online and emailed to the PHU.

Sydney LHD Public Health Unit: SLHD-Immunisation@health.nsw.gov.au
South Eastern Sydney LHD Public Health Unit: SESLHD-PublicHealthUnit-IMMTeam@health.nsw.gov.au

Which Public Health Unit is my practice in? See Public Health Unit map locator.

Is your fridge affected by a power outage?

Check your vaccine fridge:

• Check min/max thermometer – did temperatures go above 8°C?
• Download data logger – how long were temperatures above 8°C? 

If your vaccine fridge went above 8°C: (with the exception of a brief rise in temperature up to 12°C for less than 15 minutes) 

• Isolate vaccines and label DO NOT USE
• Immediately contact Public Health Unit (PHU) on 1300 066 055 and VOC on 1800 318 208
• DO NOT use the vaccines
• DO NOT discard the vaccines 
• Await further instruction from the PH​U/VOC.

Contacting the Primary Health Network (PHN) 

If you need any assistance, guidance or resources on cold chain management, please contact the Immunisation team at Central and Eastern Sydney PHN on 1300 986 991, option 3.

Immunisation team  
immunisation@cesphn.com.au