H E A LT H , S A F E T Y, E N V I R O N M E N T & T R A I N I N G
Offshore medics shoulder
increasing burdens amid
heightened health focus
Industry may need to better support health professionals
as pandemic-related testing/documentation and increased needs
around rig crews’ mental wellbeing lead to staggering workloads
BY STEPHEN FORRESTER, CONTRIBUTOR
W hile HSE has long been a core focus area in the oil and
gas industry, the offshore health professional – a group
that includes doctors, nurses and paramedics, termed
“medics” – often gets overlooked. Every rig must have at least one
health professional onboard to legally operate, yet industry rec-
ognition of the role these individuals play and how critical they
are to the overall drilling operation has been limited. Regardless,
Highlights
Offshore medics have to handle all virus
testing and prepare procedures for
managing outbreaks on rigs, including how
infected individuals are evacuated.
Increased focus on rig crews’ mental health
and wellbeing demands additional training
and longer hours from offshore medics.
There is enhanced awareness around
the importance of the medic’s role on the
rig, but more efforts are needed to better
support them and to make sure they know
they’re valued.
20 those working in this focus area have stayed the course, often
with a noble dedication to doing what needs to be done when no
one else will answer the call. The COVID-19 pandemic has helped
the industry better understand the burden medics shoulder.
Drilling contractors and offshore medics
While the offshore drilling industry had previously prepared
for and dealt with infectious diseases, the scale and impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic still caught the industry off guard, said Dr
Robina McCann, Company Medical Director for Seadrill. Drilling
contractors had developed protocols around other diseases, like
Ebola, but many of those plans never had to be activated. Further,
plans were smaller in scope due to the limited area of impact.
With COVID-19, perception of the role of the medic shifted, Dr
McCann said. “Everyone suddenly understood how important the
medic was,” she explained. “It’s not that they weren’t understood
before, but rather that people realized that the medic was the
person with the specialized skill set that could help them with
their problems.”
With the pandemic came an onslaught of new tasks for the
offshore medic, including handling all virus testing and prepar-
ing procedures for what to do if there is an outbreak. Medics have
also managed the process for escalation in the event of infection,
to whom they should escalate, and how evacuation of infected
individuals from the rig is handled.
Whether infection occurs is only part of the puzzle, as all tested
individuals become part of the ever-growing pile of documenta-
M AY/J U N E 202 2 • D R I L L I N G C O N T R AC T O R