| GENERAL INFORMATION
|
|
| KEYWORDS
|
Marine medical certificate, vision
|
| FILE NO.
|
MA-0475-28
|
| SECTOR (Marine or Aviation)
|
Marine
|
| SPECIFIC JOB
|
Aspiring seafarer (deck service)
|
| DIAGNOSIS (Primary, Secondary, etc.)
|
Myopia
|
| REVIEW
|
|
| DATE OF DETERMINATION
|
June 4, 2018
|
| MEMBER
|
Dr. Christopher Brooks
|
| DETERMINATION
|
The Minister’s decision is confirmed.
|
| REASONS FOR THE DETERMINATION
|
Refusal to issue a marine medical certificate (MMC) —Although the applicant wears corrective lenses and was noted to have an uncorrected vision of 6/60 in both eyes that corrected to 6/6, the applicant was issued with a provisional MMC and underwent Marine Emergency Duties (MED) A1 training. At the request of Transport Canada, the applicant’s vision was re-checked by an optometrist and it was found to be 20/400 in both eyes, which is below the minimum standards of uncorrected vision for a seafarer. Subsequently, his provisional MMC was cancelled. The applicant has myopia (20/400) and falls well short of the national and international standards for seafarers — the STCW Convention and STCW Code, the International Labour Organization/ International Maritime Organization (ILO/IMO) Guidelines, and Transport Canada’s TP 11343E medical guidelines. The applicant was disappointed with the process of obtaining a provisional MMC, taking the training course and then having it cancelled. The member is recommending that in the future, any initial applicant who wears glasses or contact lenses for distance vision must provide a current (i.e. within one year) evaluation from an ophthalmologist or optometrist which includes an uncorrected distance visual measurement for each eye and both eyes together. The marine medical examiner can then simply transcribe the data on to the back of the medical examination report.
|
| APPEAL
|
|
| DATE OF DECISION
|
|
| MEMBERS
|
|
| DECISION
|
|
| REASONS FOR THE DECISION
|
|
| OTHER/COMMENTS
|
|
|
|
|