Tech firm Martek Marine has teamed up with maritime professionals’ trade union Nautilus International to launch a survey exploring the provision and effectiveness of healthcare services onboard seafaring vessels.
The survey is calling on all seafarers to give their views on the accessibility and quality of medical assistance onboard their vessels. This survey will help fill a void of knowledge in the area of maritime healthcare. Statistics from the pair show there are close to 1.5m seafarers are operating at any given time on around 55,000 merchant vessels worldwide. Each year, approximately 7% of these will be evacuated from the vessel they are working on due to ill health; often at great financial cost.
Almost a quarter of these evacuations prove unnecessary, questioning the efficiency of the measures in place to deal with medical emergencies.
Chief executive of Martek Marine Paul Luen commented: “Crew welfare is a serious issue, so much so that the information generated from the survey could quite literally be lifesaving.”
Nautilus general secretary Mark Dickinson noted: “Getting a true representation of the medical assistance available to seafarers can help us answer the question of whether provisions are acceptable and where there is room for improvement. If, off the back of the survey, measures can be taken to improve medical support at sea, then it will be a win-win situation for both seafarers and their employers all around the world.”
Martek has also given all participants the opportunity to be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win a free Fitbit Blaze upon completion.
Seafarers can complete the survey by clicking here.
