PESHAWAR, July 19: Public hospitals lack facilities to treat patients who sustain burn injuries, and the only centre providing treatment to such patients coming from every nook and cranny of the province is overburdened.

“There is no burn unit in the Lady Reading Hospital. However, only one ward is reserved for the burn victims in the Khyber Teaching Hospital, who are referred to the centre run by Watan Welfare Society,” Dr Jalil Afridi told Dawn.

He said that treating burn victims is a laborious and painstaking job and over 80 per cent of the doctors, who are not trained in this field, don’t know how to treat such patients.

Usually, most patients with more than 20 per cent burn injuries die due to non-availability of the special treatment they need.

Since 1999, doctors at the WWS centre treated 1,439 burn victims, with some 350 of them given free treatment. A majority of them were children who sustained burn injuries due to the carelessness of their parents.

There were only two cases of domestic violence in which women got burnt, while 59 people sustained burn injuries when attempting suicide.

“A doctor needs adequate time to examine and treat a burn victim, so he (doctor) turns towards such patient at the end of the day. Moreover, the medicines recommended for such patients are also very expensive,” he said.

The WWS burn centre, providing treatment facility on nominal charges since 1999, lacks space to accommodate more patients. A 19-member staff, including doctors and nurses, are working voluntarily at this centre. The 12-bedded centre has an operation theatre for treating patients with severe burns.

The post-burn contractures and reconstructive surgery is also provided, but it is also expensive. A burn victim is usually kept, in a certain temperature, for more than one week, and he needs more space. Some are even brought from Afghanistan.

The centre (building) is not good enough for the purpose and the operation theatre also needs more space and equipment. The centre is not able to function very efficiently due to some constraints.

“A four canal area in Hayatabad is marked for this burn centre and the provincial government has pledged to pay 50 per cent of the land price,” Dr Jalil said.

There is lack of some equipment specially used to treat burn victims like skin grafter, masher and electronic dermatome. Most machines are donated by people. A single OT is also not sufficient and needs upgradation. During the Afghan crisis, UNHCR had donated equipment to the centre to treat patients from Afghanistan.

The burn centre is providing treatment on nominal charges as compared to the private hospitals. The centre charges Rs50 as admission fee. Dressing is done for Rs100 and grafting for Rs300. In contrast, private hospitals charge Rs1,200 and Rs25,000 for dressing and grafting, respectively.

“We cannot provide free-of-cost treatment to all the patients because we have to pay the rent of the building which is Rs 25,000 per month. Still, we try to provide quality treatment to the patients,” Dr Jalil said. The staff at the centre also includes physiotherapists and psychologists to rehabilitate the patients.