Quantification Addendum: International Medical Guide for Ships - 3rd Edition

These quantities have been updated to reflect the decrease of crew numbers on most ships and calculated for voyages of one month. This companion volume to the International Medical Guide for Ships provides essential guidance to all those who involved in the procurement, purchasing, stock maintenance and use of medicines to promote and protect the health of seafarers worldwide.

The third edition of the International Medical Guide for Ships was published by the World Health Organization, in collaboration with the International Labour Organization and the International Maritime Organization in 2007. The Guide provides advice to help promote and protect the health of seafarers. An important section in the Guide is the ‘Ship’s Medicine Chest’. This section provides a recommended list of medicines that ships at sea should carry, as well as indications and dosing. The second edition of the Guide, published in 1988, also provided suggested quantities of medicines that ships of various size should hold; recommended quantities were not included in the third edition. The University of Newcastle WHO Collaborating Centre for Training in Pharmaco-economics and Rational Pharmacotherapy was commissioned to develop a list of recommended quantities of medicines listed in the third edition of the International Medical Guide for Ships.

Scope of project

1. To update the list of recommended medicines in the ‘The ship’s medicine chest’ section of the International Medical Guide for Ships to include recommended quantities of medicines required to be held by ships;

2. To develop a list of recommended stock holdings for the medicines listed in the International Medical Guide for Ships. The listing will be standardized to quantities per number of crew.

1. Background

2. Scope of project

3. Methods

4. Results

5. Proposed quantities of medicines for the third edition of the Guide

Annex 1: Mapping of the medicines in the third edition of the Guide to the quantities in the second edition

Annex 2: Mapping of the medicines in the third edition of the Guide to the quantities recommended in the Australian and UK guidelines for ships

Annex 3: Recommended quantities of medicines for the third edition of the International Medical Guide for Ships

References

A??s a specialized agency of the United Nations, IMO is the global standard-setting authority for the safety, security and environmental performance of international shipping. Its main role is to create a regulatory framework for the shipping industry that is fair and effective, universally adopted and universally implemented.

In other words, its role is to create a level playing-field so that ship operators cannot address their financial issues by simply cutting corners and compromising on safety, security and environmental performance. This approach also encourages innovation and efficiency.

Shipping is a truly international industry, and it can only operate effectively if the regulations and standards are themselves agreed, adopted and implemented on an international basis. And IMO is the forum at which this process takes place.