Divers suffering from the life-threatening condition "bends" may have to be flown to Britain for treatment if the State loses its decompression chamber in Galway.
Dr Noel Flynn, consultant at University College Hospital, Galway, has warned the Western Health Board that he and his colleagues in the department of anaesthesia will not be able to continue their voluntary work with the chamber if it is not modernised.
A question tabled for tomorrow's health board meeting asks if the board will be able to guarantee a "full and modern hyperbaric service" within the next year at the hospital. Dr Flynn has been appealing to the Department of Health since 1994 for funding, with no success. He had also sought support from the Departments of the Marine and Tourism, to no avail.
The Irish Underwater Council and the fish farming industry have voiced support for his demand. The Irish Salmon Growers' Association has warned that lives could be lost in the leisure, oil and gas exploration and fish farming sectors if the essential equipment and medical back-up is not financed for Galway. "The funding for this life-saving necessity is a drop in the ocean in the context of overall Government investment in health and the marine, Mr Richie Flynn of the salmon growers' group said.
The chamber in Galway is the State's only nationwide decompression service for divers, and has been run with support from the Western Health Board since 1976. Dr Flynn said a full chamber could benefit patients suffering from a variety of other conditions, including carbon monoxide poisoning, gas gangrene infections, osteomyelitis, radiotherapy burns and diabetic ulcers.
The chamber is largely a voluntary service, run with technical assistance from the Galway Sub-Aqua Club, with medical cover from Dr Flynn and the late Dr Peter O'Beirn of Galway. "Our chamber is old, the members of the subaqua club and myself are not getting any younger," Dr Flynn said. "Under the present conditions, we can only provide an emergency service. The deteriorating condition of the chamber will soon force its closure."
With a second chamber at Craigavon also likely to close, the State could be left with no public decompression service. A third chamber at Haulbowline, Cork, is used by Naval Service divers only and is often at sea. Divers might have to be transferred to Britain "at great expense and detriment to their care", Dr Flynn warned, and flying will only worsen their condition.
Dr Sheelah Ryan, chief executive officer of the health board, said last year the chamber was an essential and important service, and the board fully supported the proposal.
However, procedures for procurement could not be completed in the timescale for returning receipts to the Department of Health and Children, she said.
A spokesman for the Department said funding was a matter for the health board, and it was up to it to list it as a priority.