New self certification for diving medicals

[Veronique Heyes]

I would be grateful to receive a view from the BSAC, and comments from current members about their recent experiences, if any, concerning presenting the new style self certification medical forms to dive operators abroad. I have just returned from the Maldives, where the local dive operators Euro-Divers (who operate on several islands)had never heard of this, and were extremely uncomfortable to take at face value a document which was signed by my good self, without any counter signature from the BSAC or appointed medically qualified person to vouch for my declaration. The only thing that saved the day was my good old blue log book, where my last medical certificate issued by a doctor, albeit expired in July this year, was accepted without too much hassle!

I would be interested to know if this has happened to others, how they dealt with it, and indeed the BSAC advice to handle such issues.

If this topic has already copiously covered I apologise to add to more of the same, but I have not too much time to browse, these days!

Thanks
Veronique

[KEVIN MARTIN]

I would be grateful to receive a view from the BSAC, and comments from current members about their recent experiences, if any, concerning presenting the new style self certification medical forms to dive operators abroad. I have just returned from the Maldives, where the local dive operators Euro-Divers (who operate on several islands)had never heard of this, and were extremely uncomfortable to take at face value a document which was signed by my good self, without any counter signature from the BSAC or appointed medically qualified person to vouch for my declaration. The only thing that saved the day was my good old blue log book, where my last medical certificate issued by a doctor, albeit expired in July this year, was accepted without too much hassle!

I would be interested to know if this has happened to others, how they dealt with it, and indeed the BSAC advice to handle such issues.

If this topic has already copiously covered I apologise to add to more of the same, but I have not too much time to browse, these days!

Thanks
Veronique


Veronique

I wonder what Euro Divers do when presented with a PADI diver who could not, in all probability, produce any form of medical certificate - self certificated or otherwise?

[Colin]

I dived with Eurodivers in the Maldives (Kurumba Village) in October 2001. They did not ask for a medical certificate and I thought they were an excellent outfit.

Although I am PADI-qualified, had Eurodivers asked I would have been able to present a valid certificate signed by a doctor. Maybe I am the exception that proves the rule.

I cannot understand the point of Kevin's post. As divers should we not be pulling together to try to encourage more people to participate in the sport? Kevin slagging another agency will only serve to confuse those who are considering taking up diving and does not reflect well on the BSAC.

Kevin no doubt assumes that I am the stereotypical PADI diver; a relative newcomer who dives only in warm water. Wrong. I have been diving for 30 years, mostly in Scotland and around the UK.

[petem]

I cannot understand the point of Kevin's post. As divers should we not be pulling together to try to encourage more people to participate in the sport? Kevin slagging another agency will only serve to confuse those who are considering taking up diving and does not reflect well on the BSAC.

Where exactly is Kevin slagging off PADI divers?

He is just pointing out that the biggest training organisation in the world has used self certification whilst training ever since they started and that therefore the dive operation in question must have come across people with them before

Pete

[KEVIN MARTIN]

Colin, the point of my post was to answer Veroniques question on the problems that she had encountered with the new self certification medical forms. To find that EuroDivers would rather accept an out of date medical form than a self certificated and up to date form is quite worrying.

I am pleased that you had not had any problems when you dived with EuroDivers - obviously Veronique had.

As Peter has already pointed out, I would be intrigued to know where I was actually involved in slagging another agency - particularly as I am actually an Open Water Scuba Instructor with that particular agency!

Indeed, it is your kind of remarks that confuses people. If you need to make negative and antagonistic attacks, please make sure that you read the posts correctly.



=:=I cannot understand the point of Kevin's post. As divers should we not be pulling together to try to encourage more people to participate in the sport? Kevin slagging another agency will only serve to confuse those who are considering taking up diving and does not reflect well on the BSAC.

Where exactly is Kevin slagging off PADI divers?

He is just pointing out that the biggest training organisation in the world has used self certification ever since they started and that therefore the dive operation in question must have come across people with them before

Pete

[Dave]

As Peter has already pointed out, I would be intrigued to know where I was actually involved in slagging another agency - particularly as I am actually an Open Water Scuba Instructor with that particular agency!

All I could see from your post was a query over how the company would have handled a diver from an agency which, in most countries, does not require a medical before undertaking training. Nothing anti-anything from my reading

Dave

[Dave Covey]

:=As Peter has already pointed out, I would be intrigued to know where I was actually involved in slagging another agency -

I use an excellent website by Dr Ernest Cambell MD in usa. Why not take a look & ask HIM the original question?

[Veronique Heyes]

Colin, the point of my post was to answer Veroniques question on the problems that she had encountered with the new self certification medical forms. To find that EuroDivers would rather accept an out of date medical form than a self certificated and up to date form is quite worrying.

I am pleased that you had not had any problems when you dived with EuroDivers - obviously Veronique had.


Hi guys! I am back! Whoa, slow down fellows! The only point I wanted to make was not a political one of whether PADI, BSAC or little creatures with Alpha Centauri dive club certifications should or not have prefence in the eyes of resort dive operators in respect of their fitness to dive credentials. I have actually been a bit further than this since, and if you care to follow me, the BSAC has a section on what to do about medicals, particularly if you intend to dive outside of the UK, and the answer is? Get yourselves equiped with the good old dive medical carried out by the doctor, as before. So there's the lesson. This stuff you can find in the dive medical section of the main BSAC site.

I really do not know the reason why Eurodivers in Ari Beach were nonplussed by our self certification declaration, my suspicion is that they had never seen one before, and what you don't know you don't trust, and it's easier to say no. The fact that we had log books with doctors certificates in them probably fudged the issue of whether we would or not have succeeded in getting the self certification accepted as a last resort. Maybe maybe not. All I wanted to do by posting this was to make people aware that it's a big wide world out there, and it's a little like leaving it to chance to expect what goes at home may also fit there. At the end of the day, what good is holding high a home-made principle when it's going to stop you from doing what you'd set your heart on doing during your holiday. The Maldives are self-contained resorts, and you can't very well go to the next shop down the road if yours won't play ball with you. That's the statute of limitation of this principle!

That was all really, I hope that will help others to remember to take their little books (mine's blue, and any other colour is ok by me!) with the doc's stamp in it. That's what I'll be doing from now on.

Happy diving!

Veronique

[john williams]

Politics always raises its ugly head when alternative agencies are mentioned....and it is a great shame. We have ALL taken the most important decision - to become divers. The fact that some get it slightly wrong and go outside the BSAC is tragic!(well...this IS a BSAC forum!)

The important debate here however is that correct BSAC documentation SHOULD be accepted worldwide.

It IS difficult for every shop/school in every resort to keep aware of changes to every agencies rules. However - that's one reason why we have a website.

EuroDivers should have been able to check the website for themselves (or ring their own agency HQ)to confirm that self-dec is the way things are done in the BSAC

One of the reasons BSAC changed was because the self-dec is the most common medical statement (and the old medical took too much time/effort/money to identify the VERY few people who discovered a problem not already known about)

Taking a blank self-dec form should be sufficient (with all the UKSDMC, SAA, SSAC, BSAC, etc logos on the top) to convice of authenticity. Going to the expense of a medical should not be necessary - and indeed doing it perpetuates the confusion.

Dive SAfe

John

[Dave Covey]

Taking a blank self-dec form should be sufficient (with all the UKSDMC, SAA, SSAC, BSAC, etc logos on the top) to convice of authenticity. Going to the expense of a medical should not be necessary - and indeed doing it perpetuates the confusion.


In addition to earlier answers I today looked at the "Approved Code of Practice (acop) for recreational Divers". This explains "Diving at work regs 1997" and is available from HSC books for 9.95

(It's in the interests of DO's to have a copy at branch level if you're to avoid litigation by the HSE if something goes wrong on a club dive!)

[Mark R Sims]

I've been to Ari twice and in both cases never had a problem. I simply fill-in the PADI waver each time, even when I had a medical cert in my blue book.

Mark.