KARACHI: Senior Plastic Surgeon and In-charge Burns Center, Karachi, Dr Ehmer-Al-Ibran on Wednesday called for training doctors, nurses and paramedical staff for management of minor and severe burn injuries at initial stages.
Talking to PPI, Dr Ibran stressed the need for providing initial burn treatment training to doctors, nurses and paramedical staff posted in Sindh’s rural areas. He said first three to four hours were critical for patients who suffered burn injuries; therefore, training and capacity building of medical professionals was key to save precious lives in burn injuries’ case.
He said Burns Centre Karachi’s administration was ready to train doctors, nurses, and paramedics in emergency departments or surgical departments of district-level health facilities to manage minor burn injury cases at initial stages. He said training of staff would help reduce mortality ratio caused by burns injures the as big number of burn patients die while being shifted from the rural areas to Karachi. He said: “Electric burn can cause life-long disability if it is not treated at the initial stage while death ratio is high in fire victims as compared to other burn injuries if not handled properly.
Dr Ibran said that a government project to open burn wards at five hospitals in Sindh had been pending since several years due to unknown reasons. The hospitals, where these burn units were supposed to be set up’ were Sindh Government Hospital Liaquatabad Karachi, Liaquat University Hospital Jamshoro, Chandka Medical College Larkana, Ghulam Mohammad Mehar Medical College Sukkur and Civil Hospital Mirpurkhas.
He said: “Presently, burn patients from Karachi, interior Sindh, Baluchistan and South Punjab are brought to the facility for treatment. Deaths occurring due to cylinder blast, fire, acid, electricity and other reasons annually could be reduced if small burns units are established at district level hospitals for management of burn injury cases.
He informed that 70-bedded Burns Center Karachi was operating under public-private partnership where modern operation theatres, emergency treatment facility, intensive care unit and 24-hour clinical laboratory facilities were available for patients free of cost.