The NHC offers a range of specialised medical facilities and treatments.
- Medical Chamber operated on behalf of NHS Grampian
- Decompression Sickness (DCS)
- Sports Divers
- Inshore Commercial Divers
- Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBO) Therapy:
- Emergency, e.g. Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
- Elective HBO treatments
Contracts & Workscope
The NHC has a unique saturation diving system for trials down to 600msw and has been used for many of the significant diving physiological experiments over the past 30 years.
- Health Board Contract
- Operation and maintenance of the medical recompression chamber for the Grampian Health Board. The maintenance regime is against a computerised Planned Maintenance System developed by the NHC.
- 24 hr Emergency callout / elective therapies.
- Altitude work - study into DVT's.
- Hyperbaric Lifeboat Reception
- Contracts with all major offshore diving companies.
- Chamber cover/bendwatch
- Various contracts with major offshore and inshore diving companies
Diver 'Bend Watch'
At the end of a saturation decompression, which can take several days, a diving team is required to remain within the vicinity of a chamber for several hours. This period is known as a 'Bend Watch'. If a diver is going to have Decompression Illness, or the 'Bends', it is most likely to occur within a few hours of reaching the surface.
The NHC offers a facility to their clients to accommodate their divers for this period. A Diving Support Vessel, which may have been in port for a mobilisation, can safely leave their 'Bend Watch' divers at the NHC and return to sea, saving many hours of operational time.
Hyperbaric Life Boat Reception
All saturation diving vessels working in the North Sea possess a rescue contingency for their divers in the form of a Hyperbaric Life Boat (HLB).
These are normally a Standard TEMPSC (Totally Enclosed Motor Propelled Safety Craft) which contains a hyperbaric chamber connected to the saturation system of the vessel. Certain countries require the rescue contingency to include the reception of such vehicles onshore. The NHC provides such a facility for several major clients working in the Danish, Dutch and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea.
Decompression Chamber Standby Cover
The Diving Operations at Work Regulations require inshore diving operations to have a DDC available within two hours travelling time from the site of operation.
The National Hyperbaric Centre provides this cover for a large area of North East Scotland. One of our major clients for this cover is the Underwater Search Team of the Grampian Police Force.
