February 7, 2003	Friday	Zul Hijjah 5,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 6: The government is considering different options and suggestions for opening a ‘burn unit’ in one of the two major hospitals of the federal capital.

The need for one such well-equipped unit in the capital hospitals was felt because of the ‘frequent’ incidents of women receiving burn injuries, either as a result of accidental blasts of oil stoves or because of worst kind of domestic violence.

This was stated by Hamid Yar Hiraj, the minister of state for health, while talking to Dawn. He said the government was alive to the problem being faced by burn victims owing to absence of purpose-based trauma unit in the federal capital.

Therefore, a proposal about setting up of a burn unit, either at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) or the Federal Government Services Hospital, was being considered, he added.

A part of a ward in Pims has been converted into a ‘burn unit’, but this ‘make-shift’ arrangement has always proven inadequate in treating serious patients, a number of whom failed to survive.

According to a recent study, in 2002, the four major hospitals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad received 294 burn cases, out of which 217 (73.8 per cent) patients died owing to lack of proper environment, and hospital-acquired infections.

The nearest ‘burn unit’, equipped with the necessary facilities, is in the POF Wah Hospital, and at Kharian, but both these units have limited capacity to accommodate civilian patients.

The need for at least one proper burn unit in the federal capital was being felt for the last many years, and various non- governmental organizations and social groups had been urging the government and the health ministry to provide this facility in the capital.

The small burn ward of Pims has only six to seven beds, and is located adjacent to the Urology and Surgical department, in contravention to the requirements, which suggest that any burn ward should be housed at an isolated place with proper air- conditioning system. Owing to unhygienic conditions, the patients admitted to the burn unit, are exposed to hospital-acquired infections.

A burn unit should have a sterilized isolated environment with separate bathrooms and tubs to prevent cross infection.

Unfortunately, the beds in Pims burn ward are full of bugs and cockroaches, while the pesticides being provided prove infective for being of inferior quality.

Moreover, a burn victim needs three times more food than a normal person. A burn victim having 1 per cent burns means that one per cent of red blood cells have been destroyed. A patient having 40 per cent burns needs to spent Rs1,500 to Rs3,000 daily.

Unfortunately, establishment of a burn unit in the capital has not been the top priority of the successive governments, because the victims mostly hail from low-income groups, a women rights activist said.

She said owing to absence of clean environment in the ill- equipped burn units, a victim having 30 per cent burns could not survive due to severe infections.