Burn victims at mercy of private hospitals

The only unit for burn patients at a government hospital for the 5.5 million population of the Rawalpindi has been closed for the past two weeks due to upgradation work, leaving locals with no option but to visit private facilities that are often expensive.

The Holy Family Hospital (HFH) was shut down completely on October 16, with repairs expected to continue for at least four months. The other two big public hospitals in the Rawalpindi district do not have burn units, with patients referred to private hospitals.

Health department sources told The Express Tribune that only HFH was the only government hospital with a burn unit, catering to patients from the seven tehsils (sub-divisions) of the Rawalpindi district. It could accommodate 20 burn patients at a time.

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The Benazir Bhutto Hospital and the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, the other two major public hospitals in the district, provide only first aid facilities to burn victims.

The sources added that the HFH administration could have shifted the burn unit to another hospital during the renovation work but it was not done. Resultantly, burn patients seeking emergency treatment do not have access to any government hospital in the district.

Those with severe burns were being referred to private hospitals, where burn unit facilities are available to the citizens at extremely expensive prices. Others were sent to burn units set up in Jhelum or other districts.

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Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatha said that there was a need for a ‘state-of-the-art’ burn unit while adding that various proposals were being considered for the establishment of such a unit in a district with a large population. “Our effort is to build a fully autonomous burn unit for an important district like Rawalpindi,” he said.

The commissioner added that the proposal would soon be sent to the Punjab government for a facility that would cater exclusively to burn victims.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2023.