Emergency Referrals

Our Hyperbaric facilities in London and Great Yarmouth are the only Hyperbaric Units in the region which are approved by the Healthcare Commission to accept all categories of emergency referrals.

These include:

• Acute Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
  
• Gas Gangrene and Soft Tissue necrotizing Infections
  
• Decompression Illness
  
• Crush Injury (Compartment Syndrome)

The treatment of these conditions usually requires the immediate provision of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. Our Hyperbaric facilities at London and Great Yarmouth are unique the region in that it both Treatment chambers are situated within the Critical Care departments of two acute NHS hospitals and staffed by an unrivalled team of critical care specialists including anaesthetists and ICU nurses.

Patients can be referred at any time (24 hrs a day, 365 days a year) through our Duty Hyperbaric Physicians who can be contacted via the hospital switch-boards. Alternatively one of our duty Hyperbaric supervisors can be contacted at any time of the day or night to arrange a referral or facilitate communication with the hospital team.

Emergency referrals will normally be assessed and treated immediately. All patients with diving injuries and carbon monoxide poisoning are admitted overnight by one of our Lead Clinicians. Critical Care patients are admitted to the hospitals via one of the Trust's Duty ITU consultants.

It is not uncommon for divers experiencing decompression illness to ring up the Hyperbaric facility directly and to organise their own transport. It is however always necessary to ring up the facility directly in order to ensure that adequate preparations can be made prior to the diver's admission. Our Hyperbaric Physicians may seek a second opinion from the Institute of Naval Medicine before admitting such cases.
Intensive Care patient receiving treatment inside the chamber