Supporting Seafarer Health: Planning a Longer Voyage Offshore

Welcome to the first in our Supporting Seafarer Health blog series, in conjunction with ANP Pharma.

What do you need to think about for an Ocean crossing or longer voyage?

As a starting point to supporting seafarer health, we really need to take a look at the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) which protects the rights of seafarers to have good working and living conditions, fair pay and leave, health and safety protection and accident prevention, and an employment agreement.

Article IV of the MLC specifies that ‘Every seafarer has a right to health protection, medical care, welfare measures and other forms of social protection’. Shipowners should establish occupational safety and health policies and programs to ensure seafarers have access to good quality healthcare, with the ability to escalate to shoreside medical support if needed. This includes those times when the vessel is far from land.

Vessels rely on periodic resupply orders to maintain their medical stocks onboard. If there is a medic, or medical team available, maintaining an inventory will be their responsibility, otherwise someone should be nominated to check expiry dates and manage stock. Most medical service suppliers now have online systems to log the use of drugs and consumables, run reports and manage quantities.

For those working on cruise ships, or superyachts that are island hopping or hugging the coast, it should be relatively easy for the medical team to go ashore and visit a local pharmacy to pick up certain items if they run low on stocks of basics. Crew requiring their own over the counter medications, such as pain relief, can always purchase ashore and they may have the luxury of a shop or pharmacy onboard.

But what about the longer voyages when you’re further offshore? Many vessels carry out ocean transits routinely, or to reposition, while others are dual season, spending the winter in the Caribbean and summer in the Mediterranean, requiring two Atlantic crossings every 12 months. 

Medication for individuals and the medical kit need to be considered

If the vessel is likely to be offshore for any length of time you may wish to remind all crew to make sure they have enough of their own prescribed medication to last for the duration of the transit, plus additional days in case of delays or diversions. 

For the ship's medical stores, you will need to review what could be needed for a voyage where an emergency could involve prolonged patient care as rescue of any kind could be days rather than hours away. This will largely depend on the level of medical training that the crew has, so will be different if the vessel has a healthcare professional onboard. It’s also dictated by the Flag State and the registration status (private or commercial) of the vessel.Depending on the vessel and itinerary, your plan could involve an inventory check so that any items that are close to expiry, or that will expire during the voyage, can be replaced. If you have the luxury of an electronic inventory system, you may be able to create reports to assess usage of drugs and consumables over set periods - such as the last time you made this trip!

Understanding usage trends can be a vital part of planning and the more history you have, it’s more likely that your planning will be accurate. As an example, a cruise ship travelling to the Antarctic should be self-sufficient (medically speaking) for a minimum of 3 days which is the projected time to get back to the mainland from the ice. In year one, the inventory is based on what is thought will be needed. By year two, the data collected may show that far more seasickness medication than expected is needed - due to crossing the Drake Passage. Where other medications may not be used as quickly and end up being disposed of when they reach their expiry date. 

Another factor is something we will look at in more detail in a future blog in the series, and that’s getting resupplies delivered. Delivery of certain items may be restricted in some countries, so planning ahead to make sure everything you need is onboard by the date of departure may be needed months ahead of time. 

In summary, for vessels transiting from between the Caribbean and Mediterranean this year, your resupply order for the voyage should be well advanced by now and start looking at the return journey as soon as possible. Use all of the tools at your disposal to make an accurate resupply order and if you need refresher training, start to plan it in order to give your crew all the confidence they need for a medical emergency when there’s no land on the horizon!