PESHAWAR, Dec 12: The delay in handing over of the land allocated for setting up a burns unit promised by the provincial government has caused inconvenience to patients as there is no such facility in the public hospitals of the province.

“Initially, a four-kanal plot was promised for the construction of a burns ward at Hayatabad township. Later, another plot was allotted at Charsadda road for the purpose, which is yet to be handed over,” said Dr Jalil Afridi of the Watan Welfare Society (WWS) which runs the only burns unit in the province.

The sole burns unit is overburdened owing to lack of enough facilities to cater to the needs of the patients coming from all over the province and Afghanistan with scald injuries. The 12-bed burns unit, housed in a rented-building, in University Town locality near the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), remains short of many facilities required to treat the burns victims.

“The KTH has only one ward where patients are treated, but due to the nature of scald injuries, they don’t get proper facilities. The ward reserved for the burns patients is like a dumping place and the doctors there are a bit careless,” Dr Jalil said.

Only four doctors and as many nurses are working in the ward voluntarily in the morning and evening shifts, he said.

“There is a need to extend this facility, but there is a delay from the government side,” Dr Jalil claimed. “The new-allocated area at Larama village, on Charsadda road, is not an easily accessible place,” he said.

“It takes over a week for a burns patient even with superficial injuries to heal and in the meantime, his attendants have to stay in the lawn adjacent to the unit because mostly they are very poor,” Dr Qasim, a doctor working at the burns unit, said.