History of the PEME programme

In recognition of high crew medical costs and the lack of accountability of clinics in general for failing to discover pre-existing medical conditions, the UK P&I Club set up the Pre-Employment Medical Examination Programme in August 1996.

Under the programme, accredited clinics are held accountable to both the Club and Members for their performance. The initiative was piloted in the Philippines, as the country remains easily the largest supplier of merchant seafarers. This scheme is designed to protect shipowners from claims arising from medical conditions existing prior to employment and to provide crew with a first rate health check before going to sea.

The programme originates from the findings of the Club's Analysis of Major Claims 1995. The analysis found cases of compensation claims whose proximate causes could be attributed to medical conditions which existed prior to the employment.

The Club’s investigations found huge inconsistencies in the standards used by the clinics for pre-employment medical examinations.

To a large extent, the clinics adhered to the minimum standard required by the local authority. While conforming to the standard required for their registration, there was no accountability by the clinics to a shipowner for not identifying existing medical conditions at the pre-employment medical examination.

What concerned the Club more was the examination did not extend sufficiently to screen out pre-existing medical conditions that would impact on a shipowner's liability to compensation. The consequences to a shipowner can be drastic. The potential exposure can run to a liability of hundreds of thousands of dollars under normal contractual obligations and to millions of dollars in worse case scenarios.

The Club has assisted its Members to overcome the problems by designing a universally accepted standard medical examination form; stringently accrediting and auditing clinics meeting exacting criteria; and implementing a system of quality control.