Courts and business: what will be the development of marine medicine in the Russian Federation

A meeting of the Maritime Board of the Russian Federation dedicated to the development of medical and sanitary provision at sea was held in Moscow. According to Nikolai Patrushev, Chairman of the coordinating body, in the context of the active development of the Northern Sea Route and the growth of water transport volumes, health issues in this area are coming to the fore. To improve the quality of medical care, it is necessary to establish coordination between all interested departments and improve the regulatory framework, he said. Veronika Skvortsova, head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA), proposed including marine medicine in a Unified information and analytical System that would contain data on the health of all seafarers in the Russian Federation.

Protecting the health of seafarers

A meeting of the Maritime Board of the Russian Federation was held in Moscow to discuss the development of medical and sanitary support for maritime activities in our country, as well as the prospect of expanding opportunities for foreign tourist vessels to enter Russian ports in the Far East.

In his opening speech, Chairman of the coordinating body Nikolai Patrushev noted that the preservation of human life at sea, the preservation of the health of seafarers and personnel of the marine infrastructure is one of the main principles of national policy in this area. Federal executive authorities are actively developing marine medicine. However, there are still a number of unresolved problems in this area, such as insufficiently centralized management and the lack of the necessary regulatory framework on many issues.

— Modern geopolitical challenges, plans for the development of maritime activities, especially in the Arctic, increasing the volume of inland waterway transport, as well as the need to protect the maritime borders of our country — all this necessitates the need to improve approaches to the organization of medical and sanitary provision of marine activities, — said Nikolai Patrushev.

According to him, the FMBA of Russia has created a three-tier system of medical support for sailors and submariners. It includes health centers on ships, its own network of branches and centers for the protection of seafarers' health. In order to improve the training system for shipboard personnel, additional professional development programs for shipboard doctors have been developed. The National Center for the Protection of the Health of Sailors and Divers has been established in St. Petersburg.

Special attention is paid to the preservation of the health of personnel in the Navy, which has an extensive network of medical organizations.

Work is also underway on medical support for shipping in the Arctic. The Federal Center for Arctic Medicine has been opened in Murmansk, which is responsible for medical support of work in the Arctic, including aboard nuclear icebreakers. In 2024, an emergency medicine unit was established in the city of Pevek in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug on the basis of the Arctic Integrated Emergency Rescue Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia. It is planned to open a similar unit in the village of Sabetta in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug this year. In the future, the same centers will be opened on the coast of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Nikolai Patrushev said.

Due to the lack of coordination between departments, there are not enough unified approaches to many problems.Thus, about 40% of the crew and divers are examined in the medical organizations of the FMBA. The rest receive medical care in territorial treatment centers on a general basis. The staff there does not know the specifics of marine work, Nikolai Patrushev emphasized. There is practically no unified national assistance system for divers and submariners affected by high pressure, he said.

These and other issues require active work to improve the health protection system for seafarers. It should be developed as a component of the entire national healthcare system, Nikolai Patrushev emphasized.

Unified information system

As Veronika Skvortsova noted, employees of more than 250 organizations of the shipbuilding industry, marine and river fleets, including the Arctic zone and the waters of the Northern Sea Route, are receiving medical care in institutions subordinate to the FMBA. More than 44,000 employees of water transport receive medical care in special centers.

In 2024, the Center for Industrial and Marine Medicine was opened, where a Unified information and Analytical System for Marine Medicine operates. Now it contains 44,000 personal maps of the ship's personnel, which is about 40% of the total number of sailors. According to Veronika Skvortsova, the database needs to be expanded to include data on the health of all seafarers in our country.

— On the other hand, in order to be able to include information about the health of ship personnel, divers and caissons who are not attached to the FMBA system in the Unified Information and Analytical System of Marine Medicine, including in the unified flight admission system, it is necessary to develop a regulatory legal act providing for the creation, operation and development on the basis of a Unified information and Analytical System. marine medicine systems of the FMBA <...> The Unified Register of Medical Organizations and <...> the Register of Medical Examinations of Sailors and Divers,— said Veronika Skvortsova.

A similar system is already working for members of the national sports teams of the country and the subjects of the Russian Federation, and it has proven itself effectively, added the head of the FMBA.

Speaking about the issue of entry of foreign cruise ships into Russian ports, Nikolai Patrushev noted the increased interest in organizing cruises along the coast and islands of the Far Eastern Federal District and the Arctic zone from both foreign and domestic shipowners. However, foreign cruise ships can enter a limited number of our ports and port facilities. At the same time, a third of them are closed for tourists to go ashore.

"In this regard, it is necessary to expand the list of ports in the areas of internal sea waters and the territorial sea of the Russian Federation adjacent to the territories of the subjects of the Russian Federation included in the Arctic zone and the Far Eastern Federal District, allowed for the entry of foreign tourist vessels," said the chairman of the Maritime Board of the Russian Federation.

Work on the formation of proposals for inclusion in the specified list is underway, Nikolai Patrushev added.