Other news from STCW Training News Update 8:

• The duration of the training Crisis Management Human Behaviour has been adjusted to 1.5 days
• When do you need to refresh your MFA and MC certificates?
• May an STCW-training certificate or a medical certificate expire during the voyage?

When is your foreign medical certificate recognized by the Dutch flag?

Sometimes there is uncertainty about which medical certificate issued by a foreign doctor is recognized by the Dutch flag state.

Flag states typically have two lists of doctors that are appointed to carry out seafarer medical examinations for the flag state:

• A list of national doctors.
• A list of doctors in other countries. These are foreign doctors that have been appointed to carry out medical examinations in the name of the flag state.

If a doctor – either national or foreign – is appointed by a flag state, they are allowed to use the format of that flag state’s medical certificate.

Next to this, flag states may recognize each others’ medical certificates just as they may recognize each others’ training certificates or CoCs.

So medical certificates that have been issued by foreign doctors will be recognized by your flag state:

1. If the foreign doctor is appointed by your flag state. The list of foreign doctors that are appointed by the Dutch flag state can be checked here.
2. If the foreign doctor is appointed by another flag state, whose medical certificates are recognized by your flag state. The Dutch flag state recognizes medical certificates from these countries. Please note that this list is not the same and much smaller than the list of countries whose training certificates and CoCs are recognized by The Netherlands.

Moral of the story: In finding out whether a medical certificate will be recognized by your flag state, not the nationality of the doctor but the template of the certificate is leading!

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