As Bermuda's scuba community braces for what is expected to be one of its busiest seasons, concern is mounting among doctors and divers that the Island's aging recompression chamber is not up to handling the inevitable increase in diving accidents.

Saying it's a case of "if you sink it they will come,'' Peter Haynes of Bermuda's Recompression Chamber Committee and King Edward VII Memorial Hospital's Director of Emergency Services Dr. Edward Schultz, yesterday told The Royal Gazette that with the recent sinking of the Xing Da as well as the increased promotion of Bermuda as the Atlantic's wreck-diving capital, more and more divers will be taking the plunge here.

But success they warn, will have its price. With more people diving on deeper wrecks -- the Xing Da rests 95 feet below the waves while the popular Hermes is 80 feet under -- the incidence of decompression sickness and air embolism is bound to climb.

In the past, said Dr. Schultz, most cases of decompression sickness have resulted from diving on the Hermes .

Meanwhile their call for an upgraded facility has taken on a particular urgency, given plans to relocate the chamber in the Hospital's new surgical wing, due to open in the near future.

The present chamber, built in Scotland in 1976, is more suited to the North Sea oil industry than to a sport-diving jurisdiction such as Bermuda, said Dr.

Schultz.

Measuring 11-feet long and about 43-inches in diameter, the chamber is also too small and incapable of accommodating the modern medical equipment needed to monitor the patient's vital signs.

Compounding that they say, is the fact that chamber's two port hole-type openings don't line up and are too small to accommodate the larger, heavier diver.

"Try squeezing an unconscious diver through this tiny opening, even a regular-sized person,'' said Dr. Schultz, pointing out the chamber's tiny doors.

Another serious problem is the chamber's lack of a fire suppression system: "Given the fact that we're working with an oxygen-rich environment that's a particular concern. We have to be extremely careful of sparks,'' said Dr.

Schultz.

Meanwhile there is on-going concern about an eventual breakdown and the lack of a replacement compressor; The present one was given to Bermuda following the filming of the movie "The Deep.'' The chamber, which is run by volunteer staff, is located in the Hospital's autopsy ward but is not administered by the Hospitals Board.

It does, however, receive a $45,000 operating grant from the hospital, and has three times this year been pressed into service to treat other medical emergencies such as carbon monoxide poisoning, said Dr. Schultz.

The Recompression Chamber Committee meanwhile will be meeting within the next few weeks consider fundraising options. A new chamber is expected to cost about $200,000.

The local dive community -- including commercial dive operators and the Bermuda Sub Aqua Club -- will be taking the lead, but appeals to the Ministry of Tourism and exempt companies will also be made, he said.

Given the fact the Department of Tourism is pushing Bermuda as a world-class dive destination it should be interested in ensuring the Island has world-class emergency facilities, both men point out.

Minister of Tourism David Dodwell agrees: "Government is interested and will be pro-active in helping to upgrade the facility. There is no question there is a linkage with the increased promotion of diving and ... we have to be certain we have the proper facilities in place.''