Treatment for burns gets the cold shoulder

BANGALORE: Though the IT city is known for being one of the fastest growing cities,  the city’s disaster management skills seems to have taken a backseat. Going by the recent fire breakouts, latest being AMRI fire tragedy, the fire mishap at Columbia Asia on Friday is a caution for hospitals to take a note and be alert.    Though there were no causalities reported, the incident has raised doubts on the capabilities of the city hospitals to attend to burn injuries if the fire incident was major.    Surprisingly, many city hospitals cold shoulder patients when it comes to treatment for burn injuries. Barring a few private and government hospitals, many corporate and multi-speciality hospitals lack treatment facilities for such patients. According to private hospitals,  due to apprehension over high mortality rate of  patients with burn injuries, hospitals have not set up an exclusive burns ward though they have qualified plastic surgeons.     In most cases, doctors refuse to attend to ordinary patients even with 25 per cent burn injuries. In several instances, hospitals have rejected first-aid treatment to patients with burn injuries. Dr Aravind Gubbi, general secretary, Private Hospital and Nursing Home Association (PHANA), said that the patients with burn injuries are isolated from other patients.  Focussing on burn injury patients, a hospital has to be set up with separate burn critical care unit which will be administered under isolation and cannot be combined with other intensive care units (ICUs). However, due to lack of space, infrastructure and other facilities, many private hospitals do not have such facilities. While the minor burns are treated, patients with moderate and high degree burns will be directed to go to Victoria Hospital for treatment. However, Victoria Hospital is reportedly struggling to accommodate patients during tragedies.