Pragmatic management of programmatic vaccination errors--lessons learnt from incidents in London

Correct storage, handling and administration of vaccines are vital components of a successful immunisation programme. However, with the large number of different healthcare professionals now involved in delivering the vaccine programme on a daily basis, it is inevitable that programmatic errors will occur. Decisions as to how best to rectify these errors can be difficult however, as often they are unprecedented and there may be no hard evidence on which to base their management. These decisions must therefore be based on what is known and any available previous experience. They also often take place in an environment of concern about litigation and liability which puts pressure on health care workers to take a defensive or conservative approach. Management decisions may ultimately also have to be a pragmatic choice based on the individual situation and what is deemed to be the best way to minimise adverse reactions, ensure patients are adequately protected and maintain public confidence in the immunisation programme. Here, we describe our experiences of managing vaccine programmatic errors and some of the many factors that we had to consider.