We have had a very busy month here at Midlands Diving Chamber. Fit to dive medicals are on the increase due to everyone jetting off to warmer climates, and who is to blame them with the current weather being thrown at us.
Just a reminder to double check your medical insurance and that it covers you for dedicated diving holidays. Hard to prove that you are just doing an occasional dive when you have booked onto a Red Sea liveaboard!
Don’t forget to take your Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC), this covers you for reduced cost or even free emergency or necessary health treatments. This will depend on which country you will be visiting so if you don’t have a card then you can order one fromIf you feel unwell after a dive and you felt well before the dive, then you should be seeking advice. DCI can happen any time, place, age or any level of experience of the diver.
It can happen at the most inconvenient moment or after a few days of feeling unwell the realisation hits you that you may have a rogue bubble. www.gov.uk.
Hyperbaric treatments and medivacs don’t come cheap so please be prepared. Here in the UK, we are very lucky that the NHS fund DCI treatments.
When we are not treating divers for DCI, we treat other medical conditions that respond well to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT). Sadly, these are not funded on the NHS, either the patient will pay for themselves or via their private healthcare insurance.
These conditions can range from gas gangrene to crush injury, compartment syndrome, acute peripheral ischemia, or wound healing.
Full details can be found on the British Hyperbaric Association
This article was originally published in Scuba Diver UK #78
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