National survey: MP scores over 90% in effective vaccine mgmt

Indore: State has improved its score in a national survey conducted by Union government for effective vaccine management (EVM) initiative to score over 90% on all 22 parameters improving it from 65% last year. In the state, as many as 160 stores in all 52 districts were covered in a national EVM survey conducted by the union government of India along with world health organization UNICEF, an NGO partner of UNDP a couple of months ago.
The scores were released a couple of weeks ago, wherein the state scored cumulatively over 90% with 100% score on at least eight parameters.
Those parameters getting 100% score include CCEs kept appropriately at Cold Chain point (CCP), Ice packs kept appropriately in Deep freezer, twice daily temperature monitoring, VCCH doing correct demonstration of temperature reading, Vaccines stores correctly in ILR, Vaccines stored correctly in ILR, diluents kept at least 24 hours in the cold chain before issuing to the session sites, and CCP do have standard vaccine and logistics stock/issue registers.
EVM initiative is aimed at identifying strengths and good practices in the immunization supply chain, mapping major knowledge and performance gaps and defining resources and capacity building needs to strengthen immunization program delivery mechanisms. State immunization officer Dr Santosh Shukla said, “The state has improved its score under EVM initiative. The score was around 65% last year with key gaps being about supervision.”
“After the findings came to fore, we took steps and initiated a fixed day 1200 cold chains app-based monitoring through a tool provided by the union government under the initiative from PHC level to regional director level,” Dr Shukla said.
“This corrective step helped in achieving nearly 100% supervision helping in bettering overall score to over 90%,” added Dr Shukla. Under initiative, material were provided needed for monitoring and assessing vaccine supply chains to improve their performance. An EVM tool was provided to assess the quality and sufficiency of the seven component elements of an effective supply chain. These seven components are vaccine arrival, temperature, storage capacity, building, equipment, transport, maintenance, stock management, distribution, vaccine management and information system/supportive management functions.