Located strategically within the Boracay district hospital, the new hyperbaric chamber aims to significantly improve safety and healthcare for divers, addressing decompression sickness and other dive-related health issues more effectively.
The abrupt discontinuation of NHS funding for the Oban Hyperbaric Chamber has been confirmed, prompting substantial concern within the diving community. This development effectively leaves the west coast of Scotland without an NHS registered facility to treat decompression illness, a critical service for divers.
In a region already woefully short of adequate hyperbaric emergency services for divers, chambers from Mississippi to Northwest Florida are reportedly now filling up with Covid-19 patients fighting for their lives.
As reported earlier on this site, the closest decompression chambers to the popular Oriskany dive site and Florida Panhandle Shipwreck Trail are in Mobile, Alabama which is out of state—or in Fort Myers, more than 600 miles away.
This resulted in 39 hyperbaric sessions, because some of the divers needed several therapy sessions.
Apparently, 2019 was the busiest year in the last decade for the Oban (Scotland) based chamber. Most of the patients were recreational divers; however, commercial divers working at fish farms or in civil engineering were also treated.
Tritonia Scientific has taken over the operational management of the chamber after the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) indicated it could no longer support the facility.
This unit provides emergency treatment for divers who are suffering from decompression illness.
Although Visit Pensacola promotes the Oriskany dive site and Florida Panhandle Shipwreck Trail, it has not been made aware of the safety concerns rover the region's lack of hyperbaric chambers to treat decompression sickness Nicole Stacey, spokeswoman for Visit Pensacola, told Pensacola News Journal on Thursday.
She said Visit Pensacola was not involved in any effort to try to improve emergency treatment options for divers and would rely on the diving industry and those professionals in the area to remedy the situation.
he old chamber which is over 40 years old, was run by St John Ambulance & Rescue Service and used to treat divers with decompression sickness until it was closed in April. It was solely funded by public donations and located at the Ambulance Station on the outskirts of Guernsey’s main town, St Peter Port.
This service both sustain the diving industry in Gozo and also serves to provide hyperbaric oxygen therapy to the Gozo General Hospital patients.
The Ministry for Health is also planning to train two further doctors in hyperbaric medicine at the GGH.
