En undersökning av skeppsapotekets relevans och användarvänlighet - Enligt de läkare som ger medicinsk rådgivning till fartyg

Abstract

The rules for the content of Swedish merchant ship’s medicine chest has not changed since the year 2000, and it is mostly based on the announcement from the Swedish Maritime Administration which was written in 1994. Taking into consideration that the medical progress is always ongoing the content should be in need of a revision. There was a need to find out if there is any medicine the medic avoids to prescribe, is in need of replacement or is not sufficiently user-friendly for the marine officer onboard. To do so a questionnaire was distributed to the doctors working with Radio Medical, the organization in Sweden responsible for medical advice to ships. In addition an interview was conducted with Karin Westlund, coordinator for Radio Medical in Sweden. The result showed that there is both a desire and a need for a revision of the medicine chests content. This is because the content among other things consists of drugs that are no longer used ashore as well as drugs that need peripheral venous catheter to be administered. Which means it is up to the marine officer onboard if it is possible to provide that type of medication or not. The content is therefore partly outdated and difficult to manage for the responsible officer. The lack of ability to measure all the desirable vital signs may result in certain drugs not being prescribed even when they are needed. During the year 2016 a revision of the medicine chest will be initiated. Therefore it will be necessary with a continued work within the subject to find out what changes are required.