UKDMC – New Medical Form

The UKDMC (United Kingdom Diving Medical Committee) have published a revised self-certification medical form. As a result of this the medical process has changed slightly as follows:

• The new form consists of three pages, however if all questions have been answered “No” only the first page is required.
• Answered all “No” then complete page 1 and send this to your club Diving Officer. As there is no medical disclosure there is no breach of confidentially. The SAA has produced a pdf version of page 1 which allows members to enter details directly without printing the form off, This form can be “printed” or saved as a pdf and emailed to your Diving Officer.
• If you have answered “Yes” to any question then you will need to download all 3 pages of the form, again the SAA have produced a pdf version for completion . When completing all 3 pages you should note:
  • Your details entered on page 1 are auto filled on page 3 (four lines of boxes at the top of the page)
  • Select your dive organisation from a dropdown list
  • Type in additional details on page 2, you will need to enter the date at the bottom.
  • If you need to see a medical referee print the form off and sign both pages 1 & 2. If emailing “electronically” sign the form.
  • When the medical referee completes page 3 you should provide your Club DO with a copy of Page 3 only, there is no requirement to provide copies of pages 1 & 2 which contain your personal information.
  • Whilst there is no requirement to advise your DO of your medical history you should consider letting your DO know if your “condition” impacts on or restricts the type of diving you can undertake, assuming that these are not listed on page 3 by the medical referee.
  • Page 3 will indicate the period that the certificate is valid. If the form is still valid at renewal time you only need to initial and date the form to confirm that there has been no change in your medical status, and copy this to your DO.

The new form includes a couple of new questions and adds Covid-19 to the questions around Lungs. All divers should look at the new form to ensure that they can still answer all the questions “No” or that there is no new condition which would change your previous answer(s). If at any time the answer to any question on the form changes you must stop diving until cleared to do so by a dive medical referee.

There has been no change to the requirement that a new medical form needs to be completed on the renewal of your SAA membership. With the membership renewal date moving from the 1st January to the 1st March in 2021 this means that most members will normally have to complete a second form just two months after completing a form to refresh a self-certification form which expired after 12 months. To simplify things club Diving Officer may extend the period of the self-certification form to 28th February 2021 providing all of the following apply:

• The period covered by the existing form does not exceed 15 months
• There has been no change whatsoever in the divers medical status
• The diver is able to self-certify without reference to a dive medical referee

or

• The diver has been issued with a medical certificate for an indefinite period or an expiry date after the 1st March 2021.

This extension applies only to self-certification forms there is no extension to any medical certificate issued by a medical referee.