<i>DMCH only hope for burn patients in city</i>
The city clinics and hospitals except Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) have no burn unit to treat the burn patients.
The victims of severe burn injuries have no way to receive treatment from nearby hospitals immediately as the hospitals and clinics have no burn management mechanisms.
"Management of burn injury is very expensive and we just refer the patients to the DMCH Burn Unit as we do not have facilities to treat the burn patients," said a physician of Suhrawardy Hospital in the city preferring anonymity. He also said in case of moderate burn injury the department of surgery tries to handle it.
Burn management needs special set up with operation theatre, intensive care unit and more manpower and beds. Suhrawardy Hospital lacks these facilities that leads the burn patients to be deprived of treatment there, he added.
While talking to The Daily Star Holly Family Red Crescent Medical College and Hospital Director Prof Siddiqur Rahman said they have a physician to manage burn patient but there is no burn unit in the hospital that is why they normally refer the burn patients to the DMCH Burn Unit.
After the Bashundhara Shopping Mall inferno recently, 14 people were rushed to the nearby Shamarita Hospital, which also does not have any burn unit. The hospital authorities called out burn and plastic surgery specialist from the DMCH to treat the burn patients.
Dr Samantalal Sen, project director of the DMCH Burn Unit, who treated the burn patients at the Shamarita Hospital told The Daily Star that it could be managed there, as the severity of the patients receiving burn was low.
He said the DMCH Burn Unit is burdened with five times more patients than its capacity. Treatment of burn injury is very expensive and private clinics and hospitals cannot afford it that is why the government medical colleges and hospitals should have a burn unit to treat the burn patients.
One percent of the people across the country fall victim of burn injury every year, 1.4 lakh of them with major injuries, and the 50-bed burn unit of the DMCH is the only government centre to provide treatment to this huge number of patients.
According to a report of the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit, incidents of burn in 2006 saw 52 percent flame burn, 26 percent electric burn, 14 percent scald, and 6 percent chemical burn.
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