I was just on the Cruise Review Blog and found many interesting questions and comments on the ship’s medical staff. Some people said that the ship’s doctors are no better or worse than land based doctors. Then people said that the doctors are independent contractors and the cruise line is not in the business of providing medical services. Hmmmm. Sounds strikingly similar to the arguments made by the cruise lines and their numerous lawyers. You don’t think they would….. Well they would. In any event, I am a lawyer and I represented the cruise lines for 17 years, and for the last 10 years I have represented passengers and crew members against the cruise lines. Here are my observations:

First, the cruise lines very much are in the business of providing medical care. Why? Because they take 1500 to 3000 people most of whom are U.S. citizens and residents out into the ocean where there is no medical care other than onboard the ship. Then, when the ship does go to ports, at least in the caribbean often they are port of a third world country where there is no medical care which comes close the the care we expect here in the U.S. That is why the cruise lines do provide a medical facility and staff onboard.

The cruise lines advertise that they have this great medical staff and facility. That is to reassure the public that although they are going to parts unknown they will be cared for. This after all is for sales and marketing.

What the cruise lines do not tell you is that the ship’s doctor and the medical staff in all but the rare exception are not from the U.S. They did not study or train here and they are not licensed here.

Further, even if they were the greatest of physicians, the cruise lines provide them with only the very basic of equipment. Oftentimes the staff does not know how to use it. They are not on the ship for any extended period of time. Most are on for less than a year and do not return. They are put into bad situations where people get sick or injured and they are not equiped either through training or through their physical equipment to deal with all of the people. And they are on call a lot. It is a burn out job and so they rarley reapply.

Yes, the courts have sided with the cruise lines that the cruise lines should not be held vicariously liable for the actions of the doctor. This stems from an old outdated opinion called Barbetta. The new opinion from the Florida Supreme Court is Carlyle. Some Courts have a misguided notion that the cruise lines are not in the business of furnishing medical care. This is like saying that the cruise lines are not in the busines of furnishing a safe environment to its passengers. Also this ignores the fact that the cruise lines do furnish medical care to its passengers and that they do in fact advertise that they do. This also ignores the fact that passengers who are either families with small children and passengers who are elderly certainly rely on these representations.

All of us rely on the image of the cruise liner as a huge, clean, safe environment even though it is carrying us out into the open sea and to third world countries. 99.999% of the passengers on cruise ships would never go to these countries on their own, that is without the enclosed and safe environment of the cruise ship. 10 million U. S. citizens a year take cruises. They think that all of the standards on the cruise ship are good by U.S. standards. The medical care is not. In any event, the cruise line should be held accountable for the errors of its doctors and certainly its staff.