Medical & Emergency

How the sub-Categories differ

Medical equipment treats a casualty where they are or in the sick bay until evacuation. Emergency response equipment reaches the casualty and moves them, often from a confined space, a derrick or a lower deck to a helicopter or a lifeboat.

What the medical scales require

The required contents of a medicine chest and medical locker come from law, not from the supplier.

• The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, Regulation 4.1 and Standard A4.1, requires a medicine chest, medical equipment and a medical guide on board seagoing vessels, with contents prescribed by the flag state.
• The International Medical Guide for Ships, published by WHO with ILO and IMO, is the reference text most flag states base their lists on. Its third edition includes a recommended medicine chest.
• The IMDG Code's Medical First Aid Guide (MFAG) adds antidotes and treatment guidance where dangerous goods are carried.
• Fixed and mobile installations on a coastal state's continental shelf also follow that state's offshore health and first-aid rules, and the operator's medical emergency response plan.

Your medic and the contracted medical provider set the final list. Check it before you source anything in this group.

Medical device rules

Medical devices are regulated in the market where they are used. In the EU that is Regulation (EU) 2017/745 (MDR) and in the US the FDA. A used device keeps its original conformity marking, but you need the maker's instructions, service support and spare parts to keep using it. AEDs and patient monitors also follow IEC 60601 safety standards, which a biomedical engineer checks during a safety test.

What never to buy used

• Medicines, including oxygen as a medicinal product in many jurisdictions. Controlled drugs also need licences that cannot transfer with a sale.
• Sterile single-use items such as airways, dressings, cannulas and syringes.
• AED pads, AED batteries past their expiry date and opened consumables.
• Rescue harnesses, slings and lifting straps with no inspection history.

Unused, sealed and in-date stock from a cancelled project can be sound, if the remaining shelf life covers your planned holding time.

What can be bought used

Stretchers, rescue tripods and winches, spine boards, treatment couches, examination lights and medical oxygen regulators can all have long lives. AEDs and monitors can too, if the maker still supports the model. Each needs a check by a competent person and, for electrical devices, an electrical safety test before use.

A medical refrigerator is a special case. It can be reused, but it needs a working temperature alarm and a calibrated logger, since some drugs and vaccines spoil outside a narrow range.

Integration questions across the group

• Telemedicine. Monitors and ECG units should export data your shore-based doctor can read.
• Oxygen. Regulator connections must match the cylinder valve standard your supplier fills.
• Evacuation route. Stretchers must pass through your doors, hatches and stairwells and fit your helicopter or lifeboat.
• Lifting. Any stretcher lifted by crane or winch needs a rated lifting bridle and a recorded test.
• Hazardous areas. Few medical devices carry Ex certification, so plan how the medic treats a casualty inside a classified zone before moving them.

Sourcing medical and emergency equipment

Ask for the model, serial number, date of manufacture, service records and the maker's support status. For anything electrical, ask for the last safety test. Naventr can put your medic's questions to the Seller and arrange an independent check on request.