Phase-II: PIMS burn centre extension on the cards

ISLAMABAD:

The second phase of the extension of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Burn Care Centre (BCC) will start soon. This was informed by BCC Head Dr Tariq Iqbal on Friday.    

Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Barrister Usman Ibrahim recently announced the construction of a new block of the centre at Pims, he said.

Iqbal added that most of the work on the PC-1 of the project has been completed in this regard.

Patients are treated free-of-charge and also provided with advanced burn dressings and synthetic skins, he informed about the treatment services at the centre. No burn unit in Pakistan was treating patients on similar lines, he added.

The centre head said victims with 40 to 50 per cent burns mostly do not survive, but a patient with 80 per cent burns was successfully treated at the BCC in 2011, which is a precedent in the country.

He was of the view that proximity to the hospital and immediate shifting of patients to the burn centre could help doctors save victims well in time.

In most cases, provision of better care was also the reason which helped the team in saving lives of patients, Iqbal shared.

The mortality rate for victims with 40 to 50 per cent body burns was almost 86 per cent in Pakistan, according to international burns data, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2015.