Scuba divers in one of the UK’s busiest diving locations face losing another emergency facility as the Diver Clinic, which has provided hyperbaric services in the Poole area of Dorset for more than 30 years, has announced that it is closing permanently at the end of January.
The decision to close the diving & hyperbaric medicine unit was decided with the NHS on a “mutually agreeable basis”, says the Diver Clinic, because a “convergence of multiple commercial, contractual and operational factors that cannot be met within the scope of the NHS contract” had made it no longer viable to operate recompression facilities in Poole.
The Diver Clinic started in 1992 to service the central English Channel region, and has provided round-the-clock emergency recompression services ever since.
The clinic has expressed thanks to its “dedicated, diligent and exceptionally experienced long-standing team-members” as well as to the “emergency services, maritime search and rescue and medical support organisations who have all worked closely with us to save so many lives over the past three decades”.
Many individual divers will also have had cause to be grateful for the presence of the facility.
Also on Divernet: DIVERS URGED TO BACK REPRIEVE FOR OBAN CHAMBER, WILL 25% FEWER ENGLISH POTS BOOST SERVICE FOR DIVERS?, BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE MIDLANDS DIVING CHAMBER, SAD DAY AS LONDON DIVING CHAMBER CLOSES
Such a loss to one of the busiest diving areas along the south coast. It’s interesting that neither the NHS nor the Clinic are saying where the nearest replacement recompression facility will be – which probably means it’s miles away or non-existent – Not Good :-(
If you have a DCI issue at Portland, it’s now a 100-mile drive to Plymouth or Chichester – so not good on a busy weekend. I guess we’ll just have to rely on more Helicopter trips :-(