The rapidly increasing number of burn patients in the country has turned into a serious health problem, with an estimated 1.5 lakh people suffering burn injuries every year.
Burn and plastic surgery specialists told the Dhaka Tribune that the number of burn (electric, flame, scald, chemical and others) patients have been gradually increasing; but added that there were limited opportunities of quality healthcare treatment facilities in both public and private sectors for thousands of burn patients.
It has been learnt that the 100-bed burn and plastic surgery unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) is the only hope of standard burn care treatment at low cost. Most patients cannot afford expensive treatments being offered at the private burn hospitals, resulting in many deaths from the lack of timely proper treatment.
In recent times, the DMCH burn unit has seen a spike in the number of arson attack victims, with 131 patients being admitted and 31 of them succumbing to their injuries over the last three months (October 27 to December 25).
Dr Samanta Lal Sen, a renowned burn and plastic surgeon of the country, said the healthcare and treatment of burn patients were totally different from any other disease treatment and were also very costly. Moreover, a burn patient had to take long-term healthcare treatment under the supervision of burn and plastic surgery expert doctors.
Dr Sen also said there were currently only 40 specialist surgeons, compared to at least 400 surgeons needed to meet the demand. It was next to impossible to ensure high quality treatment of the burn patients with these limited number of expert surgeons, he added.
Sources said the health ministry is going to set up a separate National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery (NIBPS) at the DMCH very soon, with primary and administrative approval already given in November to establish the NIBPS.
Prof Dr Md Abul Kalam, head of the burn and plastic surgery unit of the DMCH, has been appointed as project director of the NIBPS. A detailed project proposal for a 20-storied building of the institute has been prepared by the project director and others.
Dr Kalam said a proposal has been sent to the health ministry for admitting 20 students (10 from public and 10 from private institutes) under the institute from the upcoming session. If the proposal gets final approval from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, then the NIBPS would contribute to increasing the number of burn and plastic surgery specialists.
DMCH burn unit in last 10 years
The burn unit started at the main building of the DMCH as an eight-bed unit. At the end of the 2003, it was upgraded to a separate 50-bed unit at the building opposite of emergency of DMCH. In 2009, the unit was again upgraded to a 100-bed burn and plastic surgery unit.
Seeking anonymity, several burn specialists informed that although there were currently burn units at Chittagong, Comilla, Sylhet, Barisal and Rangpur Medical College Hospitals; most of them were not running properly. The DMCH burn unit still had to take the maximum load of burn patients, they added.
Sources at the DMCH burn unit administrative section said there were more than 300-350 patients admitted at the 100-bed unit. Around 70-80 burn patients come to the outdoor each day, with 10-15 of them getting admitted to the indoor section.
