Public Servant Lifestyle

The DfT has joined forces with the shipping industry and seafarers to win a major occupational health award.

A team led by Dr Tim Carter, Chief Medical Adviser at the Department for Transport (DfT), has won a prestigious award from the BUPA Foundation for its work to improve the health of seafarers.

The team - including representatives from the DfT, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), the Chamber of Shipping and the maritime unions - has developed new medical standards aimed at reducing the risk of ill health amongst those who work at sea.

Shipping Minister David Jamieson said: "I warmly congratulate Dr Carter and his colleagues on this well-deserved award. Seafaring has always been a high-risk occupation. Illness at sea can endanger the vessel and other seafarers as well as putting sufferers at considerable personal risk.

"Now, following the work of Dr Carter and his team, each seafarer working on a UK-registered vessel will be medically assessed every two years. This will help to ensure that they are fit for the job and will provide an opportunity to give advice on health to enable them to have a full and active career and life.

"Our aim is to identify problems such as poor vision, which may hamper look-out duties, and to reduce the risk of a serious illness at sea, such as a heart attack. Such conditions may not only endanger seafarers themselves but also fellow crew members, passengers or the vessel. This work shows what can be achieved when unions, shipping operators and Government come together for a common purpose, in this case to improve safety and health at sea."

Framework

In addition to the new framework, the team also wrote a manual for the network of 270 approved doctors responsible for carrying out assessments on everyone who works at sea. Building on this year's winning entry, future developments are planned which include a training CD-ROM for doctors and web-based reporting of assessment results.

BUPA's medical director and governor of the BUPA Foundation, Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen said: "Living and working at sea means that illness and injury can strike thousands of miles from a hospital in situations where there are often limited medical resources, so anything that can be done to reduce the risk of ill health at sea is very important. The foundation judges were particularly impressed with Dr Carter's entry as it is an outstanding example of pioneering work in occupational health."

Every seafarer who works on a UK registered vessel will now be medically assessed every two years and checked for general physical and mental fitness. The aim is to identify problems such as poor vision which may hamper look-out duties and reduce the risk of a serious illness, such as a heart attack, at sea which may not only endanger the seafarer themselves but fellow crew members, passengers or the vessel. The project began in October 1999 and was completed in June 2002.

This is the second time Dr Carter has been involved in a winning entry for the BUPA Foundation health at work award. In a previous role at the Faculty of Occupational Medicine in London he led a team that developed the UK's first guidelines for occupational health professionals on the prevention and treatment of lower back pain at work.

The BUPA Foundation is an independent charity which recognises excellence and supports research projects that help to advance medical knowledge and improve treatments.

For those registered with MCA net, further information about the medical standards for crews and seafarers can be found in Merchant Shipping Notice1765(M).

More information available in Incentives & Rewards