ISLAMABAD: Despite many advances made in the field of medicine and surgery, the cure for burns continue to remain a challenging problem in the developing world. In case of Pakistan, it seems true since there is only one state-of-the-art Burn Care Centre (BCC) in Pakistan, that in Islamabad ‘s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS)
PIMS burn unit is the sole facility where free of cost treatment is being provided to the patients due to which there is always a massive crowd in the facility as patients from across the country come to the hospital for treatment.
However, despite a massive rush, the facility has not compromised on the quality and standard of healthcare. The statistics show that 74% of those admitted to the hospital were recovered and later discharged, however, 26% patients could not survive.
According to the data obtained from PIMS BCC covering record from January 1, 2007, till November 30, 2017, a total 9,664 burn patients reported to the BCC for treatment, of which 51118 (54%) were male, while 43546 (46 %) were female.
During this period, 8,330 patients were admitted to the facility, of which 6,165 were discharged after full recovery, while 2,165 could not succumb the injuries and died. It is the lowest number in any third world country.
The overwhelming majority (around 70 percent) burn victims were under the age of 12 and were admitted in paediatrics burn unit (majority suffering from household scalds or flame), which could be prevented by providing awareness to the families and by following strict safety protocols.
According to the data, 51 % injuries were caused by flame burns followed by 28% injured due to scalding. The chemical burn was only the cause in 0.2% of the cases, yet had serious consequences for the patients. Electric burns were the reason behind 7.7% cases brought to the BCC, while fireworks and blasts caused 6% burn injuries out of the total of 94,664 cases managed at the centre.
PIMS burn centre is the first and, to date, the only facility of its kind in the public health sector of Pakistan. It has been established in accordance with the latest international standards for the management of acute burn care and long-term sequel.
The BCC organised the first ever two-day burns conference, called Burncon, in December 2017, in Islamabad. About 500 people attended the conference, including some leading plastic and burn surgeons from UK and USA. It was aimed at providing the local doctors with an interactive forum, where new ideas, current developments and future prospects could be explored.
Earlier, Pakistan Society for Burn Injuries'(PSBI) was launched to educate the masses to adopt measures which can prevent domestic burn incidents.
Due to the lack of infrastructure, an inadequate number of trained professionals and a very high cost of treatment, the number of referrals from hospitals in adjourning towns and cities other cities has increased manifolds, resulting in a lot of patients being denied due to non-availability of beds at this centre.
There is a dire need to upgrade the existing infrastructure of burns facilities across the country and establish new burn centres in the teaching hospitals of major cities with 4-8 bed burn units in all Tehsil Headquarters Hospitals with a dedicated staff and a reasonable annual budget.
There is also a need to ensure availability of special emergency burn dressing at the emergency department of all hospitals across the country. The rescue teams and the staff working at the burn centres must be given financial incentives according to their work in order for them to remain more committed towards their job.
