Hospital pharmacists and the Lareb side effects center want it to be recorded who receives which corona vaccine. This is important when administering the second dose, but also for registering side effects or recalls, says Tjalling van der Schors, hospital pharmacist and board member of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists.
The injection points must keep track of who gets which vaccine, but it is still unclear where the vaccination data will ultimately be stored, says Van der Schors. It is also not stated on every dose which batch it comes from. “The unique code is on the box, but it sometimes contains a thousand doses, which are spread over the injection points.”
Not complicated
The World Health Organization has agreed to this way of working because of its speed. “I don’t think that’s wise,” says Van der Schors. “A number of manufacturers will voluntarily put it on the bottles. It must be built into the production process. This has already been done in Indonesia and it appears to be neither complicated nor expensive.”
According to him, everyone benefits from having that registration in order, because it is not only about the injection but also the effects afterwards. It is also useful for research purposes. The registration is also important for doctors to be able to determine whether other complaints may be caused by a vaccination.
Van der Schors argues in favor of including vaccination in the existing registration systems, such as the medication file and the medication passport. “That is a file in which it is safe and in which patients can indicate whether they want the vaccination in it and whether that information may be passed on to other healthcare workers.”
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