Diving Medicals
I've had 2 patients tell me that there has been a change in policy, and only high risk patients require medicals now.
Is this correct?
Just like to put my situation up
The local doctors here don’t want to do dive medicals, people book in for a dive medical $150-$250+ Medicare card.
When they turn up 2/3 time they are turned away because the doctors are to busy and it is not an import visit.
Most people give up after 2-3 times give up and don’t do the course
If they get in they are only in there for 5 minutes ask if they have anything on the medical form.
Most off the time if they are in doubt I will get phoned up and ask the questions. eg. Had person failed because they had one arm nothing medical wrong just the doctor didn’t think he could dive with one arm. This person had been sky diving before he wanted to go diving.
I still go through the medical even after it has been signed as the doctors pass a lot off people that should have failed
There is no spums reg doctors in the area and all the rest are full off old people
This has been a big problem in my area as 80% off people that want to go diving have nothing wrong with them and don’t do in because off how hard it is to get medical. You cam go sky diving or other sports with out going to see a doctor.
Hello Peter,
Your points and my replies:
The local doctors here don’t want to do dive medicals, people book in for a dive medical $150-$250+ Medicare card.
Dive medicals are not Medicare billing items therefore if the doctor is charging your Medicare Card then they are technically committing fraud.
When they turn up 2/3 time they are turned away because the doctors are to busy and it is not an import visit.
If they have made an appointment then the doctor should see them. Thats how a professional service should work.
If they get in they are only in there for 5 minutes ask if they have anything on the medical form.
I personally have not done a diving medical (initial) that has lasted less than an hour. There are people that do dive medicals that are sub-optimal but that is like most other fields of work. You get good and bad people all over the world.
Most off the time if they are in doubt I will get phoned up and ask the questions. eg. Had person failed because they had one arm nothing medical wrong just the doctor didn’t think he could dive with one arm. This person had been sky diving before he wanted to go diving.
You can't really compare sky diving and SCUBA diving. The later has much more environmental and physiological risk under normal conditions. The diving medical is to determine what the individual persons risk is for SCUBA diving and allow them to make a judgement. Things like single limbs are more appropriate for a task assessment and should be in the realm of the instructor not the doctor.
I still go through the medical even after it has been signed as the doctors pass a lot off people that should have failed
Thats an interesting judgement call and you open yourself up for a lot of problems there. If you know something that the doctor does not then that should be made clear to the diver. However ultimately the instructor is responsible for determining whether the person is capable of diving or not.
You cam go sky diving or other sports with out going to see a doctor.
As stated earlier, the sports are not comparable. SCUBA diving has specific physiological and environmental components that most other sports do not than can directly affect your health. Therefore it seems sensible to make an assessment of thoise risks prior to doing it. Skydiving is relatively easy comparatively (I have done both).
Regards Glen
Indeed, I can confirm what Glen has said. We are currently in negotiation with the major trainnig organisations in order to reduce the current confusion. The waters are quite muddy because several things have happened more or less at once. They are all inter-related, but actually independent of each other. Motivations are very easily misinterpreted under such circumstances:
1. SPUMS has (after a process of several years) updated its Guidelines for physicians doing dive medicals. This has many important changes, but WE STILL RECOMMEND ALL PROSPECTIVE DIVERS HAVE A FACE-TO-FACE MEDICAL. Indeed, we now recommend that all divers over 45 have at least a five-yearly medical. We did discuss optional medicals or a questionnaire only, but decided against those approaches.
2. Standards Australia has changed the way it does business such that those who want to generate standards need to pay the costs of doing so. Updating the AS in this area to reflect our new guidelines is now beyond SPUMS as a sole sponsor. No-one seems keen to pay for this. In addition, there is a committment by AS to harmonise with international standards (ISO). The ISO in this area is much less comprehensive than in Australia, and does not require a face-to-face medical. At some point in the future, it is likely (but not certain) that AS will drop the current standard and adopt the ISO standard. Particularly likely if no-one updates the AS.
3. The major training agencies have decided to adopt the questionnaire approach. They still recommend a medical, but do not require such a medical if there are no positive responses on their form. In this respects, the training agency has kind of jumped the gun, or anticipated, the dropping of the AS at some time in the future.
Now you know!
Mike Bennett
There has been no change in the position of SPUMS regarding diving medicals.
Through the grapevine, we have heard that the training agencies are now using ONLY screening medical information sheets (with the exception of Queensland) and are sending only people that put a positive response to the questions to doctors for assessment.
But to state again, SPUMS' official position currently (which is unchanged) is that all people undergoing diver training should have a face to face diving medical.
Regards Glen
Thanks.
Seems some of the diving schools have decided to take that direction, against SPUMS advice
