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First
case of litigation after Tsunami.
It was only a matter of time before we saw litigation in
some shape or form after the tragedies over the New Year.
Personally I expected any subsequent litigation to
revolve around inadequate care or a lack of rapid response
from organisations such as Hotels, Tour Operators or Ground
Handlers. The following article, picked up from the Agence
France Presse (AFP) in Vienna shows otherwise:
"A group of Austrian and German victims of the Asian
tsunami disaster are to file a lawsuit demanding that
Thailand, a French hotel chain and US forecasters prove they
reacted adequately to the disaster, their lawyers said.
The suit, naming the French hotel chain Accor and the
US-run tsunami early warning system in the Pacific as well
as Thai authorities, will be filed in a New York district
court this week, the lawyers said in Vienna.
"We found that serious lapses were committed," said
Herwig Hasslacher, one of the three lawyers for the group.
They said the suit was not, at present, designed to demand
compensation but to uncover evidence that would prove
negligence.
The case was presented as the first of its kind
arising out of the December 26 disaster, when a powerful
undersea earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra
sent huge waves pounding into coastlines around the Indian
Ocean. The suit will be filed on behalf of 15 Austrian and
four German victims of the disaster.
The targets are the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) in Washington and its Hawaii-based
tsunami warning centre; the Accor group of hotels where some
of the victims stayed; and the Thai government.
The NOAA is accused of having registered the
earthquake but failed to alert Indian Ocean countries of the
impending tsunamis as the Hawaii centre covered only the
Pacific.
The lawyers said that if the NOAA and Thai
authorities, which had their own information, had passed on
their alerts in time, it would have enabled people on
shorelines to flee inland.
"We have evidence they did not warn us, even though
they knew a quarter of an hour later about the strength and
location of the quake, and although there is supposed to be
a tsunami warning" from 6.5 on the Richter scale, Hasslacher
said. The quake measured 9.0."
Accor is named in the lawsuit because the plaintiffs
say the chain did not properly inform relatives of the
victims after the disaster and had built its Sofitel hotel,
in the Thai resort of Khao Lak, on a quake fracture line."
Comment:
Of note is that the Accor group have been included, for
amongst other things, not properly notifying families of
Victims. I wonder how many hotels gather Next of Kin
or Emergency contact information at the time of check in or
booking for just such an eventuality. This is now
common practice in the US aviation industry, following the
implementation of the Family Assistance Act in the mid 90's.
Click here for an on-line version of the act
All the more reason why organisations need workable,
robust and effective crisis management systems and
procedures in place.
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Travel Health - reducing the risk of things going wrong
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The following article is of significance
for any organisation that expects its staff to travel
overseas as part of their job. It is even more
important if they are going to areas where disease is
rife! It has been written by an ex medical
colleague of mine, Dr. Charlie Easmon. Charlie has
more letters after his name than I have had the
proverbial hot dinners. I have added his bio at the end
of his article along with his company's contact details.
Why is travel health important to you?
The
UK has successfully rid itself of many diseases that
still plague the poorer parts of the world. Damage to
the liver (hepatitis) can cause tiredness and in some
cases cancer. Tetanus can cause spasm of the jaw and
death. Typhoid can cause a hole in the gut and death.
Polio can cause paralysis. Rabies once it reaches the
brains is 100% fatal. We all know someone who was
severely ill or sometimes we knows of death from
malaria. Decent travel health advice can significantly
reduce these risks.
The
legal reason
Employers owe a duty of care to employees. An
engineering firm had to settle out of court with a widow
who’s husband died of malaria. Her lawyers successfully
argued that he should have received up to date malaria
prevention advice. The unfortunate man was only told
about the risk of yellow fever. A lawyer successfully
won a six-figure sum from her own law firm after it
failed to warn her of the risk of amoebic gut diseases
in West Africa.
Properly documented, accurate travel health advice can
reduce the risk of these six-figure payouts.
The
financial reason
Court or out of court payments as noted above are an
obvious cost saving but who audits the cost of illness.
How many people have returned from abroad and been
wrongly diagnosed by their GP. Some people are told
they have irritable bowel syndrome, which is a life-time
diagnosis for what may be a parasitic illness and could
be treated in a week. How many people with malaria end
up on intensive care or too ill to work. Even hepatitis
can put you out of action for several months. You and
your work force deserve the best and most up to date
advice available. Good travel health advice is not an
area to falsely try and save costs. Many employers show
no interest at all in where or whether their employees
receive travel health advice. If 20 engineers go to see
20 different general practitioners (GPs), it is almost a
certainty that they will have 20 different opinions
ranging from the well-informed to the truly appalling.
You should want to be certain that all 20 have had the
best advice possible and that this is consistent. With
this knowledge you can feel re-assured` that the duty of
care has been met.
The
logistical reason
You
are pulling a team together from different locations.
You may even disperse them overseas. Why not make sure
they all have the same written travel health brief? See
if a provider can go to them, if you cannot bring them
all to one place to see the provider. Why not make sure
one provider keeps all the health records for you and
ensures completeness? How many times has someone said
“I don’t remember what I had and when I had it”? This
is costing you money. A simple example: if you have 2
hepatitis A vaccinations within one year of each other
no more is required for 10 years. However, people
forget the second jab and have to start again, each time
at a cost of more than £40. Why not choose a provider
who can ensure a recall is made as and when the next
vaccinations are due.
You
have sent your engineer to a malarious area. The
mission was supposed to be 3 months but it has been
extended. Who do you ask to provide more malaria
tablets? The NHS GP is not allowed to prescribe for
more than three months to someone going abroad. You
need a provider who can source and deliver the
medication to your engineer.
What
should you think about for comprehensive travel health
duty of care?
Firstly ask yourself do I even have a travel health
policy?
If
not think what should it contain or who can I ask to
write me one?
A
good travel health policy would consider the following:
-
What
are the risks to your travellers?
-
Who
advises your employees or contractors on travel health
risk?
-
What
resources do the service providers use to give your
employees or contractors the most up to date advice?
-
Does
each person have a record of what they have had and is
it regularly up date?
-
Do
you give them written travel health information or an
oral health brief or both?
-
Have
you checked their insurance?
-
Have
you checked that they know their blood group and that
they are at most risk of road accidents?
-
Can
you reduce the risk of road accidents? (i.e. advise
no self-driving in the first 24 hours after a
long-haul flight?)
-
Have
you assessed for the risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)?
-
Have
you assessed fitness of the individual to travel?
-
Will
you supply any sort of medical kit, including
anti-diarrhoeal medicine?
-
Have
you talked about sexual health risks?
-
What
do you know about the quality of local medical
facilities?
-
What
system do you have in place for assessing post-travel
illness?
-
How
will you cope with next SARS like illness overseas?
The
above list is not exhaustive but gives an idea as to why
clients use services such as ours to ensure that their
travellers get the best advice and services before,
after and during their time abroad.
Dr Charlie Easmon, MBBS, MRCP, MSc Public Health, DTM&H.
DFPH, DOccMed, Medical Director
The Number One Health Group
One Harley Street
London W1G 9QD
www.numberonehealth.co.uk
Tel 020 7307 8756 |
For help in all crisis management and
risk assessment matters, why not call
docleaf®
now on 01923 681224 or visit us at
www.docleaf.com.
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