If you are going on a cruise ship, you hope everything goes smoothly. But, at the same time, you realize there is a chance you could become injured or sick. You could suffer an injury if you slip and fall down a wet set of stairs, for instance, or if there’s an accident around the pool or other recreational equipment.
If something like that happens, does the cruise ship have a doctor who can treat you? How worried do you need to be about getting injured on your vacation?
The size of the ship
Most cruise ships will have a medical staff. Exactly what that staff looks like depends on the size of the ship itself. Typically, there are at least five people on the medical staff, but larger ships could have nine people.
For example, a cruise ship may have 3,500 passengers. This is a relatively small ship, and a boat that size will generally have a pair of doctors. However, those doctors will then be supported by three nurses, and they may have other staff, like a medical secretary.
Cruise ships do have some advanced equipment, such as X-ray machines. They also have a pharmacy. That said, if you suffer serious injuries – say that you suffer a spinal cord injury or a traumatic brain injury in a fall accident – then you may have to be taken by helicopter to a hospital on shore.
As you can imagine, all of this is time-consuming and very expensive. If your injuries are due to someone else’s negligence or perhaps the fault of the cruise line, then it is very important that you know how to seek financial compensation.