KARACHI, June 5: There is no burns care centre in any of the public sector tertiary care hospitals of Karachi except the one at the Civil Hospital and another for child victims at the National Institute of Child Health (NICH).

The fact was registered here on Tuesday during the ongoing hands-on workshop on essential burns care, jointly organised by the Burns Centre, Civil Hospital, Dow Medical College and the International Network for Training, Education and Research in Burns (Inter-Burns).

It was observed that Karachi was registering a population growth at a rate of six per cent annually with a constant increase in the number of industrial units at both the formal and in-formal sector besides erection of multi-storeyed buildings without mandatory security provisions against fire, presence of chemical warehouses in congested localities enhanced the possibility of mishaps.

In such a situation, it was highly recommended that not only necessary measures be taken to contain risks but essential provision for trained medical professionals and well-equipped facilities to provide timely assistance to burns victims be also ensured.

On the first day of the workshop team comprising Dr Rashid Jooma, Dr Shariq Ali, Dr Tom Potokar, Dr Ambreen Moazzam, Dr John Beavis and Dr Patricia Wise trained the 32 selected course participants belonging to both the private and public sector hospitals.

The focus of the training was on improving the participants’ professional skills to support burns victims.

The workshop has been particularly designed to empower doctors in burns prevention strategies as well as management of major and minor burns at the district level hospitals.

It was attempted to provide a basic foundation on which doctors and health care workers could acquire necessary knowledge and skills for burns management even without sophisticated technological requirements.

The workshop that will continue till Wednesday is being conducted at the Professional Development Centre - DUHS. It provided the participants with visual material and created conditions based on local clinical experiences.

Course Coordinator Dr Shariq Ali said that the exercise had been designed to cover all aspects of multi-disciplinary approach ranging from prevention strategies, treatment and rehabilitation in accordance to the working environment in Pakistan.-—APP