THE SWEDISH CLUB PUTS ROOT CAUSE OF INCIDENTS INTO FOCUS

THE SWEDISH CLUB PUTS ROOT CAUSE OF INCIDENTS INTO FOCUS The Swedish Club has launched its latest publication, Claims at a Glance, which provides an insight into the full range of claims the Club has handled over the last five years, and is intended as a tool to reduce the frequency of incidents for both P&I and H&M claims.  With prevention at its heart, it covers the key lessons learned across a range of real life situations, and provides a useful update of data contained in its most recent loss prevention titles: P&I Claims Analysis; Main Engine Damage; Navigational Claims; Ice - Advice for Trading in the Polar Regions; Heavy Weather; and Wet Damage to Cargo. Claims at a Glance investigates the causes of a wide range of incidents and makes practical recommendations on how to prevent them. It makes full use of Interactive Root Cause Analysis (IRCA) to analyse the root cause of a variety of claims, demonstrating that despite the seeming differences between incidents, the root causes are often very similar. Lars A. Malm, Director, Strategic Business Development & Client Relations, explains: “The Swedish Club uses the IRCA process widely in our organisation to help us see behind a problem, and identify key learnings that we can apply in our loss prevention activities. Like all insurers we handle a great many claims and have identified that many of the causes of these claims are recurring. “The importance of establishing a good loss prevention culture in an organisation cannot be underestimated – we acknowledge that this is a time consuming process requiring great commitment. However when you consider that the average cost for a P&I claim is USD 80,000 and for H&M it is over USD 500,000, then the benefits of preventing even a single casualty can be considerable.” Claims at a Glance provides a broad insight into the claims landscape, using case studies to reveal the stories behind the statistics.  It looks at the most common and expensive claims across all vessel sectors, in addition to the profile of injury and illness claims, and provides practical advice on how to minimise exposure to risk across a wide range of operating conditions. “Prevention is all about evaluating one’s own organisation, knowing how people act and understanding what is needed to assist all personnel to perform safely in a safe environment, explains Mr Malm.”The main focus should be on training personnel both at sea and ashore in understanding and recognising when a vessel or person is exposed to an unacceptable risk.”