Shipowners’ Club said that it had recently undertaken a review of its seafarer illness claims. It said that the associated statistics raised concerns regarding the overall standard of seafarers’ physical and mental wellbeing.
When analyzing the data the Club found that many of the illnesses recorded were of a type that could have been detected and investigated had an enhanced pre-employment medical examination (ePEME) been carried out. “Whilst an ePEME would not prevent all illness claims, there would have been a very good possibility that the frequency of such occurrences on board could have been significantly reduced”, the Club said.
In February 2019 the Club created its own bespoke “Medical Enhancement Scheme for Seafarers” (Medisea). Since its inception in Feb 2019, the Medisea programme has been available for Filipino and Indonesian seafarers employed by Members and will soon be expanded further to include Indian and Malaysian seafarers. The long-term plan is to gradually extend this scheme to seafarers of all nationalities serving on board entered vessels.
Medisea will be available at no additional cost to the existing statutory medicals. The Medisea medicals will be valid for 24 months and can be undertaken concurrently with the statutory MLC Medicals.
On behalf of the Club, Medisea is being administered by Nigel Griffiths, Chairman of The Marine Advisory Medical & Repatriation Service.
