Dive Ops requiring doctor's certificates before being allowed to dive.

[hammerhead man]

Louie, you bring up an interesting point regarding insurance being invalidated. My other point is that I have never seen the medical wiaver requirement prominently posted (or posted at all) on any dive op web site. I agree that divers need to be reminded of the risks associated with diving but if a dive op is going to require a medical release from a doctor, that requirement needs to be prominently displayed on the web site and you should be notified of that requirement prior to putting your money down for the trip. In my case, no one would have known about the requirement until we reached the resort. It was by chance that the dive shop inquired about the waiver so that it could be filled out prior to leaving in order to save time once we got to the resort. So you get to the resort and you are either forced to lie on the form or you answer honestly and can't dive unless you visit a local doctor at an added expense.

Regards,

Bill

 

[Louie]

I always say you should ask the questions BEFORE you book because there is always that unexpected requirement or cost you discover upon arrival.

Bill,

Some divers get a worse surprise than the unexpected cost of a medical upon arrival at their destination. They may discover they're NOT ALLOWED to dive depending on what they answered "yes" to on the medical. This is because (as I'd mentioned in my original post) standards differ from region to region. A diving medicine specialist in the UK told me that Australia (and Queensland in particular) had much higher requirements for conditions such as asthma and other respiratory problems. I didn't make much of this until I did my DM course in Aus and saw that many travelling Open Water candidates were being rejected for asthma categorically (whereas they would have been OK-ed with a med certificate back in their home countries).

So I must repeat the importance of doing the research BEFORE the holiday to avoid the unexpected and some disappointments.

 

[nipi]

In Cuba about 10 years ago they took our blood pressure on the boat as we were kitted up on the boat & about to leave the dock to dive. Both my buddy & I were "very good" which was surprising as we'd had a shedful of LaGarto the night before.

 

[robint]

Recently, I decided to take a trip through my local dive shop and at the pre-trip briefing I discovered that the dive op we were going to use on the island of Eleuthera required that divers fill out a medical history form and if you answered yes to any questions then you needed a doctor's certificate before they would let you dive. I have dived all over the world and never encountered this before and was wondering if any other people have experienced this. What bothered me was that the dive-op did not advertise this prior to my signing up and if I had not learned of it before arriving at the location I would not have been able to dive. In my case, I am taking medication for high blood pressure and thus, need a doctor's certificate clearing me to dive. So, I would have been forced to lie on the form (this is against my principles) or not dive.

I wrote the resort that sells the packages and strongly suggested that the medical waiver form be mentioned on their web site so that people are not caught unaware of what their requirements are. My personal feeling is that it is appropriate to inform divers of the risk of diving with certain health issues but that requiring a doctor's certificate as a requirement to dive was a bit over the top. I would be interested in your thoughts.

Regards,

Bill

I have seen this occasionally..... the cure is to carry a copy of your medical waiver with you on every dive trip, just in case. My husband recently went on colesterol meds and so he takes a copy of his Dr's approval with him along with a fact sheet about the meds.

Don't lie anymore, it can really come back to hurt your family if something goes wrong on a dive especially if it has nothing to do with your meds. It is better to have all the paperwork in line before there is a court battle.