Occupational Health for Seagoing Operations

FREE for ALL (please log in on the SOM website first). 

This exclusive webinar will cover
•    Living and working on board – worse things do happen at sea
•    Medical care on board ships
•    Guidelines for the medical examination of seafarers – national and international.
     o    How are they developed?
     o    Why are they important? 
     o    Current review process
•    Individual risk assessment of fitness to work at sea
•    The UK position
•    International Maritime Health
     o    IMHA
     o    IMH and IMHF

Speakers:

Dr Sue Stannard was appointed as Chief Medical Advisor to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in the UK in February 2022. Sue has a clinical background in Acute Medicine, Anaesthetics/ITU and Paediatrics. She worked as a Ship’s Doctor for P&O Princess and was later Medical Director at Carnival (UK). Sue was also Medical Director (Assistance) at International SOS in London overseeing all medical assistance cases. These included evacuation and repatriation flights, monitoring of medical cases overseas and providing medical advice to leisure and business travellers, expats and companies. She has worked as a Consultant at the Norwegian Centre of Maritime and Diving Medicine in Bergen and more recently as an Independent Consultant in Maritime Medicine, working closely with the maritime industry on a number of publications. She is currently studying for her Masters in Maritime Health. Sue is also an appraiser of UK Independent Doctors. 

Her talk:

Worse things do happen at sea and the maritime environment is unique in many ways. For some seafarers working at sea, it is their living and working environment for many months at time, often remote from medical care and support. It is therefore key that seafarers are both physically and mentally fit to manage the challenges of life at sea to manage the risk to themselves, others on boar, the operation of the ship and the environment. This presentation will review the current UK Guidelines for fitness to work at sea and the ENG1 medical system for assessing fitness on an individual basis. As the maritime industry is a global entity, we will also look at the international perspective including ongoing work to ensure that the medical guidelines are up to date and how you can contribute to this and other work within the maritime industry.

Dr Imogen Stilz
Imogen is an accredited specialist in occupational medicine and a portfolio occupational physician. She’s working for Southwestern Railways (2021), University College London Hospital (2020), and Shell (2011). She is medical advisor for Shell’s commercial shipping operations. Imogen’s work has included research reports, presentations, and publications on occupational health quality indicators, industrial injuries compensation schemes, mental health and resilience training in seafarers, and remote health care off-shore.

Her talk is entitled “Joining the dots – occupational health in an international commercial shipping fleet"
There are regulatory & industry standards and recommendations for many different elements of maritime health and wellbeing, covering medical fitness, health promotion, human factors, health hazards for physical & mental health, and medical care on board ship. Whilst the common goal is supporting the health and wellbeing of seafarers, these standards and recommendations often address only one element in isolation. There is however a complex interplay between these different elements, the ship’s environment, and seafarers’ health. The presentation shows where and how these elements connect and what organisational factors are important to make it all work.

Michelle Johnson is Specialist OH Nurse Practitioner and has worked in OH since 1993, working across a broad spectrum of manufacturing, logistics, retail, defence and aviation, joining the world of OH from a fascination of differing industries and their effects on individual’s health. 
In 2005, she completed a Masters degree in Strategic Management at Bristol University which has enabled her to take a more strategic view of how OH can provide a fundamental piece of the jigsaw puzzle for workers health and wellbeing within the wider aspect of organisational capability. 
She has always been an avid supporter of the RNLI, herself being a sailor and was fortunate to obtain the OH and Wellbeing Manager’s role with the RNLI just over a year ago.  Her feet hasn’t touched the ground since, taking her back to her roots of the fascination with workers and volunteers health. 

Her talk:

The RNLI has developed it’s own Medical Standards from a conglomeration of CAA, DVLA, MCA and various military standards, as Lifeboat Crews do not strictly fall into the definition of a Seafarer in accordance with the MCA. Whilst the RNLI is not considered an Emergency Service either, the fact remains that we have employees and volunteers who have search and rescue capability and go to sea to save lives in conditions that are unpredictable and challenging. Volunteers in particular love their role, so challenges exist where someone doesn’t meet the standards and they are ‘stood down’ which has led to mistrust of the OH service and a feeling that ‘if you get sent to OH you’ll be off the boat’
We are in the process of reviewing the ‘standards’ and their relation to ‘fitness to serve’ from a functional capability perspective, enabling more people to fulfil the role they love safely and effectively. 
The talk looks at this unique group of people (and we mustn’t forget lifeguards who have a different set of standards) and the standards that have developed over the years to where we are today
 

Chair: Nancy Hey

FREE for ALL. You will then be sent the joining link.