“Shipping and Cruises Medical Services” (SCMS) was founded in 2015 by Mr. Melas Konstantinos.

For years, Mr. Melas himself has been involved in the business of offering medical services to both crews and passengers of cruise and commercial ships as well.

SCMS, has a steady co-operation with “Hellenic Healthcare Group” (HHG), which is by far the largest medical services company in Greece. Specifically, the “Metropolitan Hospital” which is located just 10 minutes driving distance from Greece’s main harbor of Piraeus. It has already accepted and successfully treated more than 2000 patients originating from cruise or commercial ships the last two (2) years.

Being fully aware of the time constraints that cruise ships need to meet regarding their stopovers in harbors such as Piraeus, we have specifically organized an autonomous medical system-protocol for handling the international patients that is crew members and passengers as well.

The set of all needed procedures to be followed is carried out by a specialized team of personnel that undertake the fast processing of all medical incidents. High priority is given, not only to the medical laboratory tests and physical examinations along with any needed medical imaging procedures, but also to the processing of the administrative procedures like the issuing of the fit-to-travel and/or fit-for-duty certificates.

Furthermore, direct contact with their insurances is provided, either for financial details or for repatriation details. In case that communication with embassies or consulates is needed regarding special arrangements, our company will also handle such occurrences.

Our personnel is multilingual and fluent in many languages such as English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Turkish and Chinese.

Our medical team is composed of excellent MDs of all specialties and it is well tuned in providing full 24/7/365 coverage for medical incidents.

We fully undertake the procedures regarding the reception of the patients directly from the port, with ambulance or other special car, and also their return to the ship or to their countries, provided with their full medical files if so needed.  By acknowledging the differences between patients of different cultures, special care is taken by our trained personnel for their proper assessment and psychological welfare.

The principles upon which our company is founded, which are also the guiding principles for our personnel, both medical and administrative, are honesty, sincerity and sole focusing to the values of the medical profession.

The HHG is the largest private group of health services in Greece and one of the top in Europe.

It includes 6 top treatment centers:

• • Hygea,
  • Metropolitan Hospital,
  • Metera,
  • Metropolitan General,
  • Leto and Creta InterClinic,
  • the diagnostic centers HealthSpot,
  • the company Y- Logimed (medical technology products),
  • the Genetic Center and Molecular Analysis ΑlphaLab and company Business Care, which provides services of security and health in businesses, companies and organizations and
  • the modern Educational Center Heal Academy which aims to education, retraining, training and research in medical, nursing and general health issues.

The above mentioned medical infrastructures can cover all the needs either passengers and crew members of cruise vessels or commercial vessels and are the following:

Primary care inside the port authorities (healthspot in OLP):

• Outpatient services (cardiological, ENT, Ophthalmological, Internal, Orthopedic).
• Imaging evaluation: Ultrasounds, Doppler, X-Rays.
• Laboratory services (hematological and biochemical control).

Secondary care:

• Ambulance services
• Transfer of a medical case to Meteopolitan Hospital
• Management of an emergency medical case
• Specialized imaging evaluation (CT, MRI).
• One Day Clinic medical services
• Patient’s hospitalization

Digital Clinic:

• The Group has digital clinic service, which provides the opportunity of communication via electronic platform of the patient with doctor’s choice of all the specialization during cruise trip.

Covid-19 testing services:

• Covid-19 control testing during the embarkation of the passengers and the staff. The control can be performed after having a contact with the companies for the exact place of testing.
• Covid-19 control testing by laboratory infrastructure network and authorized associates to all ports in Aegean and Ionian Sea.
• Contact tracking in case of positive Covid-19 cases and updating of the basic health protocols to avoid dispersion.
• The Group has high reliability of PCR and rapid tests and rapid molecular tests. Also, Omicron variant’s mutation can be detected.

Onboard services

• The Group HHG can provide medical and nursing staff for medical services coverage onboard during the cruise trip.
• Diagnostic centers and doctors to all the destinations either for primary or secondary medical services.
• Ambulance presence inside the port and availability of private car.