In spite of all adversities Karachi would have its first Burns Centre operational in any of the public sector facility by early October following installation of a three-phase PMT and necessary connection with the support of private donors.
The urgency of the Burns Centre for the metropolis could be well-gauged from the fact that besides the surge in the emergency conditions those happen to be an annual average of 1,000 patients reporting Burns Unit of the Civil Hospital, Karachi, in want of surgical intervention as the only option and hence needed to be admitted.
It would not be out of context to remind that there are 19,500 to 20,000 patients attending the Out-Patient Department (OPD) of the Burns Unit, Civil Hospital annually.
These patients mainly pertaining to middle and lower income groups are absolutely in no position to afford the expensive treatment in the private sector, while as mentioned none of the government hospitals with the exception of National Institute of Child Health cater for complicated and serious nature of burn cases.
Under an arrangement all paediatric category of burns are attended at NICH, and that of adult at Plastic Surgery and Burns Unit at CHK.
Along with accidental instances causing varied degrees of burns and constituting the major chunk (96 percent) of cases referred to the Plastic Surgery and Burns Unit of the CHK followed by homicidal and suicidal nature of burns there is almost an equal number of congenital as well as unintentional nature of deformities required to be corrected through plastic surgery.
The growing number of such cases which also had to be attended and administered in extremely hygienic conditions and clean surroundings besides, under highly sterilised circumstances would be possible at the newly and fully equipped Burns Centre -an extension of the Plastic Surgery and Burns Unit, Dow University of Health Sciences and the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK).
Professor Shaista Effendi, Head of the Plastic Surgery and Burns Unit as well as the Burns Centre talking to APP here on Saturday mentioned that the state-of-the-art facility is housed in a building notified as a protected heritage.
Previously, the very structure located within the premises of the CHK and the DUHS was about to be demolished and new building was decided to be erected, however, the local philanthropists "Friends of Burns Center" agreed with the idea to support Professor Shaista Effendi and Conservationist Yasmin Lari in renovation of the building with its original structure intact.
The state-of-the-art facility completed with a significant assistance of the private donors besides, government funding included Rs 8 million for the procurement of equipment will be run under a board of management for which a memorandum of understanding is about to be arrived between donors and the government functionaries.
It would be a 10-member board comprising the Sindh health secretary as the president and the chairperson of the Friends of Burns Centre as the vice-president. The DUHS vice-chancellor and other authorities as well as some of the members of the Friends of Burns Centre will also be the part of the board.
Answering a query, Professor Effendi said there was also no dearth of qualified and well-trained health care-providers, including doctors, nurses, para-medics, physiotherapists, and the technical staff. However, they need to be transferred to the Burns Centre and due consideration on part of the CHK medical superintendent and the Sindh health department is required.
As for recurring expenditure, she said it was estimated to come to around Rs 1 million which has to be provided by the government but can be supported again by the local philanthropists too.
Comments
Comments are closed.