We have made the following changes to our service:

• Our opening hours are now Monday to Friday 8:30am to 4pm (closed public holidays). Queries can still be submitted outside these hours via email, ERMS, our Query portal on this website, or answerphone.
• We are no longer able to answer queries from private hospitals and clinics. We still accept queries about patients who are within the public health system (e.g. from a medical center or community pharmacy).
• We are no longer able to answer queries from community pharmacies regarding fridge excursions or medicines that have been stored incorrectly.

To help assess whether medicines remain suitable for use following a temperature excursion, the following resources may be useful:

• Our bulletin: Assessing medicines when stored outside manufacturer recommendations – Christchurch Medicines Information Service
• Refrigerated medicines stability tool, UK Specialist Pharmacy Service: Refrigerated medicines stability tool – NHS SPS – Specialist Pharmacy Service – The first stop for professional medicines advice
• Medsafe data sheets. Check data sheets for products from Australia and UK, as the same product (confirm excipients are identical) may have different storage requirements in these countries:

• • Australia: TGA data sheets: Product Information (PI) | Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)
  • UK data sheets: Home – electronic medicines compendium (emc)

• Contact the supplier of the medicine and check if they have stability data for the product. They will require the batch number(s) of product(s) affected, and details of the storage conditions.