Sae-Jia Thanawat, Sithisarankul Pornchai
Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, 1873 Rama IV Road, Pathum Wan, 10330 Bangkok, Thailand.
Maritime Medicine Residency Training Institute, Naval Medical Department, Royal Thai Navy, 504 Somdet Phra Chao Tak Sin Rd, Bukkhalo, Thon Buri, 10600 Bangkok, Thailand.
Int Marit Health. 2020;71(2):114-122. doi: 10.5603/IMH.2020.0021.
Medical evacuation in the offshore oil and gas industry is costly and risky. Previous studies have found that the main cause of medical evacuation due to illness is increasing. In Thailand, there have been no studies on the causes and costs of medical evacuation in the offshore oil and gas industry. This study aims to study on the causes and costs of medical evacuation among offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Thailand.
A retrospective review of data of medical evacuation among the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Thailand from 2016 to 2019 for a period of 36 months.
During the research period, a total of 416 cases were evacuated. The majority of the causes of Medevac (84.13%) were illness. We found that 60.1% of all Medevacs were unpreventable or difficult to prevent, and only 39.9% were preventable. The cost of Medevac ranged from 10,000 to 880,000 THB per case. The cost of Medevac occurring from preventable causes was 17,160,000 THB for this period of 36 months.
Reducing the cost of Medevac can be done by: 1) vaccination to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases, 2) screening to prevent people at risk of getting complications from pre-existing diseases to work offshore, and 3) increasing treatment capability of offshore facilities. Offshore oil and gas industry may consider cost-benefit of these approaches compared to status quo.
海上石油和天然气行业的医疗后送成本高昂且风险巨大。此前的研究发现，因病进行医疗后送的主要原因呈上升趋势。在泰国，尚未有关于海上石油和天然气行业医疗后送原因及成本的研究。本研究旨在探讨泰国湾海上石油和天然气行业医疗后送的原因及成本。
对泰国湾海上石油和天然气行业2016年至2019年共36个月的医疗后送数据进行回顾性分析。
在研究期间，共进行了416次后送。医疗后送的主要原因（84.13%）是疾病。我们发现，所有医疗后送中有60.1%是不可预防或难以预防的，只有39.9%是可预防的。每次医疗后送的成本从10,000泰铢到880,000泰铢不等。在这36个月期间，因可预防原因导致的医疗后送成本为17,160,000泰铢。
降低医疗后送成本可通过以下方式实现：1）接种疫苗以预防可通过疫苗预防的疾病；2）进行筛查，防止患有基础疾病有发生并发症风险的人员从事海上工作；3）提高海上设施的治疗能力。与现状相比，海上石油和天然气行业可考虑这些方法的成本效益。
