Putting together a ship’s medical kit is a lot like preparing a boat for a long voyage. It is about envisaging all the scenarios that could affect the health of you and your crew, and making sure you are ready with the skills and equipment to address them.
Before each passage you’ll need to assess how far from help you’ll be at any given time and what level of medical care would be required on board to keep a casualty safe and stable until professional help can be accessed. This is something people often put to the back of their minds – I’m guilty of the same – always addressing how we can repair our boats, but not taking the same level of precaution with the humans sailing them.
A pragmatic approach is essential: we need to plan for the very worst but on the understanding that it is unlikely to happen – in the
