THE board of management of the National Health Fund (NHF) has written to the Jamaica Constabulary Force requesting an investigation into the circumstances leading to the breakdown in the operation of one of its cold rooms.

The incident occurred at the NHF Pharmaceutical Warehouse in Kingston on December 24, 2021 and thousands of doses of vaccines were affected.

The police investigation has commenced.

The NHF immediately suspended the distribution of the vaccines that were stored in the affected cold room. However, it said there are approximately 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines available to continue Jamaica’s vaccination programme. Those were stored in another of the cold rooms operated at the NHF Pharmaceutical Warehouse.

In a release, the NHF said the Ministry of Health and Wellness was briefed on the incident and is being provided with updated reports. Additionally, contact was made with relevant health organisations and medical experts to provide advice on the efficacy of the vaccines involved in order to make a determination on their use.

The NHF said it has also requested the professional services of the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct an independent investigation into whether management followed the standard operating procedures for temperature monitoring of cold rooms at the warehouse, upon being alerted of the temperature irregularity.

“Full restoration of the cold room was completed and it is fully operational and functioning normally. Additional measures were also instituted in order to minimise chances of recurrence and to reduce the risks associated with the warehousing of pharmaceuticals requiring cold storage,” the NHF said.