Medical screening for divers: what the forms are and who decides.

Why there is a form at all

Wikipedia (secondary) notes that most training organisations require a minimum level of fitness and health. The systems below check it with a screening form. BSAC, for example, says all diving members must meet its medical requirements before any training or diving. This page describes two screening systems: the 2020 system endorsed by the WRSTC, and the UKDMC self-declaration used by the major UK clubs. It does not list the questions or discuss any medical condition, and nothing here can tell a reader whether they are fit to dive. That decision belongs to a physician, or in the UK club system to a UKDMC Medical Referee.

The 2020 Recreational Diving Medical Screening System

Who wrote it

DAN's Alert Diver (1 August 2020) reports that the Diver Medical Screen Committee (DMSC), an international group of diving medicine experts formed in 2017, began an evidence-based review of the existing screening system that year. After field testing and outside input, it published the updated Recreational Diving Medical Screening System in June 2020. NAUI's notice of 25 June 2020 says the work took about three years.

The sources list the contributors slightly differently. NAUI names the UHMS Diving Committee, DAN America, DAN Europe and the Hyperbaric Medicine Division of the University of California, San Diego. PADI's post of 14 July 2020 names the UHMS Diving Committee, DAN and UC San Diego and does not mention DAN Europe. DAN reports that DAN, the UHMS, the WRSTC and training agencies endorsed the system.

The three parts

Diver Medical Participant Questionnaire

Completed by the diver.

Diver Medical Physician's Evaluation Form

Completed by a physician, only when the questionnaire shows that a physician's approval is needed.

Diving Medical Guidance

A peer-reviewed reference for physicians on how medical conditions relate to diving. NAUI says the UHMS provides it free online.

What it is meant to do

DAN describes the aim as letting anyone who can dive safely do so, while encouraging people with possible health risks to get a medical evaluation of their fitness to dive. NAUI's notice lists further aims: reflect current evidence, be easy to use, identify who needs a medical evaluation and support physicians' decisions. The 2020 forms also added a COVID-19 question, according to NAUI.

How a yes answer works

PADI explains that the older single-page form had 34 questions, which could cause what it called form fatigue. The new questionnaire uses two steps. Its first page has 10 questions. As PADI describes it:

• A diver who answers no to every first-page question does not need a medical examination.
• A yes on the first page leads to a second page of more specific questions.
• A yes to any of those means the diver needs a physician's approval to dive.

Copies of the physician's form, seen only in search summaries, describe two outcomes: approved, meaning the physician found no condition they consider incompatible with recreational scuba diving or freediving, or not approved. We could not read the form itself, so that wording is not confirmed here.

Replacing the older forms

NAUI says the WRSTC endorsed the system on 9 June 2020 and made the Participant Questionnaire an open-source document for its member training organisations. The original RSTC Medical Statement was first published in 1989; NAUI says the 2007 version stayed valid during the changeover, while agencies could move to the new forms straight away. PADI said on 14 July 2020 that the new questionnaire replaces the PADI Medical Statement wherever PADI standards require one.

DAN says the forms are hosted on the UHMS website, under its Resources section, as the Recreational Diving Medical Screening System. The version dates in circulation do not all agree. PADI distributes the questionnaire as form 10346, and the copy we found has 2022-02-01 in its file name while still showing a 2020 copyright; we could not read its text. Later revisions of the questionnaire and guidance are mentioned in search summaries, but we could not confirm which source gave which date.

The UK system: UKDMC self-declaration

In the UK, the major clubs use a different system. The UK Diving Medical Committee (UKDMC), formerly the UK Sport Diving Medical Committee (UKSDMC), is the body of medical advisers to BSAC, the Sub-Aqua Association (SAA) and the Scottish Sub-Aqua Club (SSAC). It is also the final route of appeal on medical decisions for their members. Our research did not find the date of the rename.

How it works, as the UKDMC's current (undated) page describes it

• Members complete a medical self-declaration every year when they renew membership. The UKDMC describes the signed form as a legal document.
• A diver with no yes answers signs the first page, which the club or branch keeps until the next year.
• A yes answer means contacting a UKDMC Medical Referee. A diver with a known condition that has already been assessed, has not changed and has an in-date certificate may keep using that certificate.
• The UKDMC states that a diver who develops a new health problem must contact a referee straight away, not wait for renewal.
• Referees keep medical details confidential. The diving organisation receives only the outcome page, which contains no medical information.

BSAC describes Medical Referees as a national network of doctors with accredited diving medicine expertise who apply one set of fitness standards. BSAC members upload a referee's certificate to their membership profile, where it stays pending until BSAC headquarters approves it.

Why the UK moved to self-declaration

The UKDMC says UK divers once needed routine medical examinations, but these were seldom carried out by doctors with diving medicine expertise and predicted little. It cites a study of about 3,000 SSAC members led by Dr Stephen Glen, with Steven White and Dr James Douglas, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which found the questionnaire the most useful screening tool. The UKDMC's 2015 page says the form was reviewed in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and a revised version published in 2016. Its current page says a new Recreational Diver Medical Declaration Form came in from 2020 and was updated in 2021, including a COVID-19 prompt.

Where else a doctor's sign-off comes in

Some courses add medical requirements of their own. PADI's Divemaster requirements (16 April 2025) include a physician's evaluation and clearance from the past 12 months. GUE's Open Water Diver prerequisites include a physician's prior written authorisation for prescription drugs or for conditions that may pose a diving risk. For how diving medicine bodies describe age and health, see fitness to dive.