With just seven or nine icepacks it becomes too difficult to manage, especially for the evening shift vaccinators. PHOTO: FILE
Nine ice packs used for preserving polio vaccines reportedly went missing from the refrigerator placed in the blood bank of Polyclinic Hospital on Friday.
There is a chance that due to a shortage of icepacks, vaccines may lose their potency, said Syed Waqar Hussain, a vaccinator at one of the transit points established by the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) Directorate of Health Services at Polyclinic Hospital.
Talking to The Express Tribune, he said that last year in November the total number of icepacks were 16 whereas now there are seven to nine.
“At the end of our daily shift we place the icepacks in refrigerators, but have often found them missing the next day,” he said.
They have complained several times to the concerned officials but they expressed their complete ignorance over the issue, he added.
“Instead of taking any action they told us that blood bags also go missing from the refrigerators daily so who should we hold responsible for this ,” said Hussian.
There are two transit points at Polyclinic Hospital where vaccinators work in two shifts, administering polio drops to around 45 children daily. At each transit point vaccinators have four vaccine carriers in which they keep two icepacks to preserve polio vaccine, he said.
With just seven or nine icepacks it becomes too difficult to manage, especially for the evening shift vaccinators.
When contacted, Polyclinic Hospital spokesman and head of blood bank Dr Sharif Astori expressed his complete ignorance about the issue and said he will look in to the matter.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 25th, 2013.
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