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
The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it an onslaught of additional responsibilities for medics on offshore rigs, resulting in
workloads that have doubled, triped or even quadrupled. This has pressured some medics to leave the industry, and those
who remain say they continue to face diffi cult challenges.
tion on the rig related to the virus. On top of COVID-related duties,
medics have also been tasked with providing psychological sup-
port to the crew — such that some medics now require training
in psychology.
“Throughout the pandemic, some of our operations people had
to maintain quarantining for up to 14 days in a hotel,” Dr McCann
said. “We had guys psychologically breaking in that time, having
panic attacks from the stress. So, the medics were being asked
to step up and help detect and prevent that from happening, as
well.” All of this means the medic’s workload has doubled or tripled
over the past two years, with little recognition despite the
increased risks to their own safety and health.
Dr McCann explained that the confluence of these factors has
led to burnout not only in the onshore global health workforce in
general but also, more specifically, an exodus of talent from the
offshore medical profession. “The industry has lost a lot of med-
ics,” she said. “Globally, we’ve seen a trend over the last two years
that has seen many medics and health professionals just quit.
They said they were scared, and they didn’t want to do it anymore.
Some didn’t even want to work onshore and left the healthcare
sector entirely.”
Dr McCann said she hopes that medics get more recognition for
the job they do, considering the importance of the work and the
personal risk they’re taking. “The industry needs to move away
from checking a regulatory box to purposefully and intentionally
looking at how critical this role is and making sure they know
they’re valued,” she remarked.
One approach Dr McCann took to establish better connections
with offshore medics was to schedule regular support and knowl-
edge sharing meetings . Because the medical professionals on rigs
are typically hired via a third-party provider, such meetings didn’t
used to take place. She also lobbied to implement high-level per-
sonal protective equipment early in the pandemic, as she wanted
to ensure that Seadrill did its part to keep medics safe as they
worked on the front lines.
The company believes that health and safety extends beyond
the traditional focus on injury preventio n to include physical and
mental wellbeing. Medics play a huge part in that strategy, Dr
McCann explained, noting: “We work with the medics to provide
a true holistic prevention and promotion model offshore.”
However, as the drilling contractor does not have final say
on the number of medics deployed to an offshore asset, she also
noted that the onus should be on the operating companies to look
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