Medico Cork has been designated as the State's first radio medical consultation centre for accidents at sea.
The service is to be based at Cork University Hospital and will be run by a special maritime medical consultation unit attached to the Southern Health Board. It will provide free advice to injured or sick seafarers in the Irish search and rescue region, if requested to do so by the Irish Coast Guard.
The advice will also be available to injured or sick Irish seafarers world wide. It will work with the Coast Guard, which has responsibility for facilitating ship-to-shore communications, including provision of medical advice.
Staff at the hospital, led by Dr Stephen Cusack, have already travelled to both Madrid in Spain and Toulouse in France to study the operation. Medico Madrid frequently provides assistance to Spanish nationals in Irish waters, working on coast radio stations.
Under European Union minimum health and safety regulations, such a service should be available in all coastal states.
The hospital has provided assistance over the years in sea rescue situations, many of which have resulted in helicopter transfer to the hospital. Medico Cork was welcomed by the chairman of the Southern Health Board, Mr Batt O'Keeffe TD.
"I firmly believe that this is going to be a major improvement to the emergency system, which will potentially save lives at sea," he said.
Lifeboat stations run by the Royal National Lifeboat Institutions have voluntary medical officers, many of whom serve on rescue missions off the coastline.
