The tender for the purchase and installation of a hyperbaric chamber at the Hospital do Barlavento Algarvio, in Portimão, had three competitors and the winner should be announced this week, he revealed to Sul Informação the person responsible for Musubmar, a non-profit association whose objective is to develop underwater tourism in Portugal.
Luís Sá Couto, main mentor of the underwater park «Ocean Revival», promoted by Musubmar, said that «by September» this hyperbaric chamber should start operating, whose main purpose will be to allow the treatment of victims of decompression accidents (divers), carbon monoxide poisoning or sudden deafness.
In the case of the unit to be installed in Portimão, which should cost around half a million euros, it will allow for the simultaneous treatment of ten patients and will be donated to the Hospital do Barlavento Algarvio under the project «Ocean Revival».
The aim is for the hyperbaric chamber to provide support, in the first place, to any accidents whose victims are divers on the Algarve coast, especially those visiting former Portuguese Navy ships sunk off Alvor, within the scope of the «Ocean Revival» project .
In addition to decompression accidents, the equipment will also allow treating other pathologies such as sudden deafness, diabetic foot injuries and other chronic wounds, or burns.
The future hyperbaric chamber in Portimão will be installed on floor -1 of the hospital and will be operated by a rotating team, comprising a doctor, a nurse and a technician. The equipment will operate in the National Health Service network, and patients referred by the NHS will not pay, while private patients will pay for the use of the camera, through a price list to be defined.
Until now, whenever there are decompression accidents involving divers in the Algarve, the victims have to be transported to the Hospital da Marinha, in Lisbon, where the nearest unit operates. However, according to the person in charge of the «Ocean Revival» project, this does not guarantee the necessary safety for the development of the underwater park created off Alvor, which is intended to attract thousands of divers from all over Europe every year.
«To guarantee maximum safety, it is essential to purchase, install and adapt a Hyperbaric Chamber to the hospital», stresses the «Ocean Revival» project on its website.
The chamber will thus be "at the service of divers, allowing a controlled pressure to be maintained in possible emergency situations", but "it will be mainly at the service of the local community and the country, thus constituting an important investment in health and ensuring, in short, other medicinal applications in other types of therapies'.
In mainland Portugal, there is another equipment installed, within the scope of the NHS, but it is located in the North of the country, at Hospital Pedro Hispano, in Matosinhos. The cities of Funchal (Madeira) and Horta (Azores) are also equipped with hyperbaric chambers.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, the Secretary of State for Tourism will be in Praia da Rocha, at the headquarters of the company Subnauta, owned by Luís Sá Couto, to learn about the «Ocean Revival» project and then take a dip in this underwater park, which is presented as fundamental to the development of diving tourism in the Algarve.
On June 15th, it will be the third former Portuguese Navy ship sunk, the frigate «Comandante Hermenegildo Capelo».
What is a hyperbaric chamber?
Hyperbaric chambers are, in essence, pressure-resistant (watertight) metal cylinders, equipped with portholes or windows.
The multi-patient chambers, like the one that will be installed at the hospital in Portimão, allow the entry of 2 or more people simultaneously, allowing the entry of a companion (technician, nurse or doctor).
So that the companions are not affected by the treatment, this type of chamber is pressurized with compressed air, with oxygen being supplied to the patients through specific masks or hoods.
During hyperbaric oxygen therapy conducted in multi-patient chambers, a specially trained nursing technician, hyperbarist nurses or even the hyperbarist physician (thus called "internal guides") accompany patients inside the chamber during the session, assisting them directly in the putting on masks or hoods or administering medication.
These chambers have the great advantage of allowing the entry of stretchers and other equipment useful in the treatment of critical patients.
Sessions usually last 120 minutes (2 hours). Multi-patient chambers allow the monitoring of vital signs of critically ill patients during treatment.
Comments