Scuba diving does involve some risk and some medical conditions can make the risk much higher. As a result, the regulations, requirements and medical standards relating to diving in Australia are amongst the strictest in the world, in order to ensure that Australia continues to be one of the safest places to dive.

Overseas dive medicals or diver fitness certificates will NOT be accepted unless the assessment certificate clearly and specifically states that the Dive Medical was carried out to the Australian Standard AS4005.1.

Dive Medicals have an expiry date, and must be dated less than 12 months prior to diving.

The Dive Medical focuses principally on cardiac, pulmonary and neurological conditions, and general health issues, that may put a diver at increased risk for decompression sickness, pulmonary overinflation syndrome with subsequent arterial gas embolism, and other conditions such as loss of consciousness, which could lead to drowning.

At a more mundane level, the most common condition that will cause people to be declared medically unfit to dive is asthma. In Australia, it is standard practice to exclude asthmatics from diving even though some people may wish to voluntarily take this risk.

Other common conditions that can affect fitness to dive are problems with hearing, sinus infections and ear infections. These can be temporary and do not place the diver at increased risk, so generally a warning is made of the risks involved after which the diver can make the final decision on whether to dive or not.