The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Maritime Administrator has received a report that Indian Port State Control (PSC) has been strictly enforcing Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006) Standard on ships’ medicine chests. As of today, they will be issuing a Code 17 to vessels that do not comply with the requirement.
The RMI requirements regarding medicine chest inspection and certification are:
- The medicine chest must be inspected at regular intervals, not exceeding 12 months;
- The medicine chest must be inspected by a pharmacy/pharmacist that has been approved by the competent authority in which it is located; and
- Where physical attendance on board by the pharmacy/pharmacist is not feasible, the medicine chest may be inspected and certified remotely, provided certain conditions are met.
The Administrator advises that these requirements are enforceable by any PSC authority of a country that has ratified the MLC, 2006, not just India. Therefore, RMI flagged vessels are advised to:
- make certain that their medicine chest certification is up to date and that such certification (the documentation of which may or may not take the form of a certificate) has been provided by an approved pharmacy/pharmacist.
- check with port agents on any directives by Administrations on local implementation and enforcement of the medicine chest requirement. For example, see Indian Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) Order No. 02 of 2017, dated 22 May 2017, which provides that Administration’s inspection regime, including a list of entities (Port Health Officers and Medical Examiners), authorized to inspect and certify medicine chests, here.
