As many of you may know, Andy and Gill Berry of Diving Medical Services (DMS) closed their private emergency clinic at Sodwana Bay recently. Ever since the days of Medical Rescue International and DivEvac, there has been an association between DAN and DMS: The clinic sported DAN insignia and in many people’s minds DMS was believed to be a DAN facility; it never was!
Diving Medical Services (DMS) closed its clinic at Sodwana Bay in January 2009 for personal and financial reasons. DMS was an independent, privately owned, Emergency Medical Service provider. In support of its service to DAN members, DAN provided significant financial sponsorship in excess of R400,000 over the past 11 years. In addition to this sponsorship, DAN also paid for actual services DMS provided to DAN members. DAN remains ready and able to assist and evacuate injured divers from Sodwana Bay and elsewhere – as always, 24-7. However, there is no longer an on-site assessment and emergency management facility at Sodwana Bay. The closest medical facilities are:
1. Mseleni Hospital (26km) 2. Richards Bay Hospital via Hluhluwe (209 km)or 3. Pongola Private Hospital – (190 km)
Upon receiving notice of closure from DMS in November 2008, DAN participated actively in searching for doctors, nurses or paramedics who would consider taking over management of the facility or purchasing it from DMS. No such party was found and the clinic was closed in January 2009. We continue to support any efforts at reopening a facility at Sodwana – just as we would consider doing at any popular and remote dive resort. In fact, DAN-SA has been instrumental in the establishment of a recompression facility and diving medical assessment clinic in Zanzibar recently, but the intent is always that the facilities must become financially and operationally independent. It is inappropriate and unfair to our greater Southern African DAN membership base to carry the full financial burden of any single facility within our vast region. As it is, we paid a lot of DAN membership money to sponsor DMS at Sodwana Bay over the years.
The effect of the closure of the facility is likely to include the following: (1) We anticipate a greater number of calls asking DAN to help injured divers at Sodwana who previously were seen and managed by DMS. Our response is to train key personnel at the various diving operations to assist us in appropriate assessment of diving-related injuries to determine when evacuation may be required. The closest hospital to Sodwana is Mseleni Hospital and, on occasion, we have sent divers there – especially local divers and dive operator staff. However, this is not the preferred option. We prefer injured persons to go / be taken to Richards Bay or Pongola Private Hospitals. (2) We are likely to have more ambulance and aeromedical evacuations from Sodwana now than in the past due to the absence of an on-site assessment and triage facility. The absence of an emergency response vehicle at Sodwana means that ambulances will have to be dispatched from Richards Bay and the return journey is approximately 5 hours. This may favor the use of aeromedical evacuations in daylight hours if we are alerted in time to respond. Zumed was able to assist us in the past, but usually made use of Andy as paramedical escort. We would now need ALS teams dispatched with the flight crew. We are liaising with Richards Bay Hospital / Ambulance Service in advance to assure their facilities and availability.
If anyone has ideas or suggestions on how DAN could address the situation in a better way, please feel free to discuss this with us. We do anticipate that some divers, and even some DAN members, may believe or hear that the closure of DMS was DAN’s responsibility or our fault. This is clearly untrue and we would appreciate your help in setting the record straight.
Frans Cronje, MBChB(Pret), MSc President DAN Southern Africa
Fundraising Info 1: Simply Scuba Trust, Nedbank Branch 135705 Account 1357094620 If you could please put relief and your name as a ref.
Fundraising Info 2: The Whaler financially in this impossible time their account number is ABSA Bank, account number 9153657080 branch code 632005, ANY donations will be welcome, please use "relief" as reference for payments.
Fundraising Info 3: Dolphin encounters - Dolphin EnCOuntours, Nedbank, Sandton, acc number 1970645857 branch code 197005. Every little bit will help.
Dundraising info 4: Acc name T. Steyn, absa savings acc, 9171585843, kwanganase. You will receive a thank you from individuals so u know the money was received. Thanks guys for your support
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