THE DEPARTMENT
The hyperbaric and Dive Medicine Service has been operating in Landspítali Fossvogur since 1993.
This service started in Iceland as an international agreement in 1992 by request of the Iceland government with the collaboration of the Exterior Relations Ministry of Italy.
The project included the Naval Italian Army, the Sicilian Society of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine of Palermo, the Centre of Hearing of Iceland and the Reykjavik City Hospital.
A project between Iceland and Italy since 1992
Dr. Calcedonio Gonzales is the medical chief of the hyperbaric and dive medicine service. In 1993, Gonzales gave to Landspítali an Hyperbaric Chamber that was used for over one year, after that and for a couple of years more the hyperbaric service worked as a collaboration project in which the Icelanders paid half of the costs and Italy paid for the operative costs.
The need for a hyperbaric chamber became so important that Calcedonio supplied a bigger chamber with a new agreement. The Icelanders acquired the chamber at that moment, and its operation is now completely in the hands of the Icelandic state.
Diverse Italian doctors and technicians have worked in this country for the hyperbaric service, for 20 years an agreement with the University of Trieste in Italy and the University of Iceland, where the Icelanders and Italian students get practical training in hyperbaric and dive medicine in Iceland, this educational agreement begun with the creation of the service until 2015.