The Wellness Hyperbaric Chamber Buyers Guide

Hello again,

Its been a good long while since I wrote anything for the blog. With good reason though. These past months have been a busy time preparing online training materials and video lessons for the online learning and knowledge development platform I hope to launch before the end of the year with further modules on the slate for early next year. The plan is to take the training and knowledge development services global. If this is of interest to you or your organisation, navigate to the training page for more information on that score. Training is currently only available directly with us, all material is written and compiled but not yet entirely online. This is expected to be completed soon.

In the meantime though, and the reason for todays sojourn into writing, (not that I’ve been short of writing work lately), is to announce that I intend to publish a buyers guide in two parts. I’ve recently been asked to write a buyers guide to try and provide clarity on just what is involved in designing, building and marketing a compliant hyperbaric chamber. The work is targeted at the UK market however is just as relevant for the EU and USA customer base. Most of my articles over the years have focused on the therapy itself with little focus on the equipment, technology and matters arising from these topics. Hopefully this can change that.

Part one covers things a buyer should know or be aware of when purchasing a chamber in order to avoid being taken for a ride, or worse, buying a donkey of a chamber that fails to comply with regulations and construction codes. And there are plenty donkeys around which don’t hold up under scrutiny. Part two is dedicated to the consequences of buying a chamber that does not have a proven pedigree and one which fails to meet construction standards and regulations.

Recently I saw a video from one the worlds leading experts from Israel claiming the wellness market was completely unregulated. I’m here to correct him in that belief. It’s plenty regulated. Most just don’t realise it.

The easiest way to provide a peek inside the covers of these documents presented in A5 format is to take this excerpt from the introductory comments and reproduce it here along with images of the contents pages.

This from the introduction:

In recent years, specifically in the “wellness” sector of the market, it has become obvious that many unscrupulous manufacturers and sellers of hyperbaric chambers have come to the fore. This has occurred as a result of the well known de-regulation of 2008 in which hyperbaric chamber services were removed from the list of regulated services in terms of the Care Quality Commission remit, formerly the Healthcare Commission. Unfortunately, one undesirable consequence of this, is that subpar manufacturers and purveyors of chambers have used this to release subpar equipment into the marketplace, and it reflects badly on all of us. Even the ones who sell quality, tested and proven equipment. It brings the whole industry down.

How to tell the difference between the good, the bad, and the downright ugly is key. The intention of this buyers guide is to help educate customers and purchasers of hyperbaric chambers in the wellness field, and highlight potential pitfalls when outlaying what amounts to considerable funding when acquiring a chamber. Much of the information disseminated here is applicable to wellness chambers as well as hospital based so called, “medical grade” chambers because as you will see in terms of construction standards there is little difference. In fact many of the requirements listed are common to the diving industry also.

This document is intended to be un-biased and favours no particular chamber provider but rather seeks to safeguard to pioneering work done by Professor Philip James and Sir David Downie when they campaigned for deregulation in terms of CQC registration in 2008. It would be a shame to see that work undermined and compromised by those seeking to make a quick buck, shut up shop, and re-emerge to trade again under a different name. And believe me, there are many of them around.

It’s also important to learn to determine as a buyer, if youre being lied to, or if your potential supplier actually knows what they are talking about. It has become common practice to weave a single thread of truth into a fabric of tall tales and hope the customer doesn’t notice. This happens a lot with the technical nature of hyperbarics. On the face of it certain claims seem to be legitimate because they are built around some element of truth. Look for the common thread between stories and sales pitches. That will enable you to separate sales pitch from fact. Also, endeavour to understand the terminology used by marketing departments. Very often this terminology will be erroneously applied and with a discerning eye, it’s not difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Being a scientific discipline it can be confusing and certainly difficult to differentiate between truth and beautifully described garbage.

“Experts” are a dime a dozen in today’s world. Everyone is a “Subject Matter Expert”. It’s important to quiz these experts on their credentials and discover for yourself if they are justified in assuming the title “SME” (subject matter expert). Personally, I’ve never liked the term “expert”. To me, an expert is someone way older than I with 50 years’ plus experience behind them. I prefer the term specialist. I know only a handful of these true experts. They’re who I call when I don’t have an answer to a question. Anyone who claims they have all the answers to all the questions is deceiving you. Buyer beware!

I call myself a specialist. And you can investigate my credentials here: https://cumbria-hyperbaric.org/about-us/ I am the face behind the Cumbria Hyperbaric Brand and its ideals as they relate to the charitable provision of HBOT.

In an effort to keep this document short enough to complete in a quick read, we will touch on subjects such as construction standards, materials compliance and testing including the potential toxicity of plastics under pressure, the 2008 deregulation,  Pressure testing and verification, certificates of compliance, training, quality management, and after sales support, among others.

Hopefully by the time you, the reader, has completed this reading, you should have a better understanding on what goes into actually building a chamber that is safe for human use and one which will last for the intended life span of the product. And one which retains it’s re-sale value.

You will then understand that it simply isn’t possible to make a new chamber that sells for £5k or £10k and have it comply with everything it should comply with.

Let’s dive right in.

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Right, with the introduction out of the way I’ll say this. This is bound to ruffle a few feathers. So be it. Too many shoddy operations are selling far too much questionable equipment, and to my mind, and the mind of those I work with, it’s criminal. It has to stop. So let the chips fall where they may. If youre thinking of buying a chamber, or part way through that process. PAUSE….. read this first. It’s free and provided freely for no gain. To me, this is about protecting an industry which could be easily scuppered by bad business and non-compliant equipment.

If you want a digital copy. Reach out here:

Until then, take care and be kind,

Hayden.