Overburdened: Burn patients left in the cold this winter

Pims official claims dengue patients causing bed shortage

ISLAMABAD: Every winter, the burn centre at the capital’s leading public hospital starts flooding with patients suffering from various kinds of burns.

This Thursday, the outpatient department (OPD) at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Burn Care Unit Thursday received its highest number of patients so far this season.

According to an official, who requested not to be named, there was a sudden spike in the number of patients visiting the unit’s OPD. As many as 90 patients were admitted on Thursday, as opposed to the usual average of 60.

“The majority were children from Abbotabad,” he said, adding that they suffered burns in a “cylinder blast and in a separate attempted suicide through self immolation”.  “Due to the shortage of space, it has become difficult to admit and provide complete treatment to patients. Most are discharged after initial treatment, resulting in the deaths of many,” he explained.

Currently, only two public hospitals in the twin cities have burn care units --- Holy Family Hospital (HFH) and Pims, and the former often refers serious cases to the latter.

However, a majority of patients referring to Pims this year said they were refused admission by the hospital’s management, who told them the unit was short on beds due to the number of under-treatment patients with dengue fever, he elaborated.

“Every year, Pims management claims they are working on extending the burn care unit, but this never materialises,” he said.

Pims head Prof Javed Akram said the hospital plans to submit a new proposal for the extension to the Planning Commission of Pakistan early next week. He conceded that the planned extension had been delayed.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2015.