Burns units in Thiruvananthapuram hospitals to receive major uplift

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A year after the horrific Puttingal temple tragedy that snuffed out 110 lives, the burns units are set to get a major push at the medical college hospitals and two district hospitals this year thanks to the green signal given by central team that inspected the facilities at these institutions. A three-member team from Safdarjang hospital Delhi which inspected facilities at the Thiruvananthapuram medical college burns unit had cleared the department for central assistance worth Rs 6 crore. The money will be utilised for modernisation of facilities, construction activities, equipment and manpower.

As part of the project, the six bed burns ICU will be renovated along with the two bed step down ICU. There are plans to convert ward No 25 into exclusive burns ward. At the moment the ward has 35 beds. Once this is converted into burns ward the number of beds would be reduced to 20 since a minimum distance of 2.5 meters has to be kept between two beds. This is to prevent patients from catching infection. The expert teams had also examined the burns treatment facilities at Kozhikode, Thrissur and Kottayam medical colleges and cleared them for modernisation. District hospitals Ernakulam and Kollam hospitals.

Along with infrastructure facilities, these institutions will have to improve staff strength. There is a provision to take people on contract for three years. Subsequently the state government should take over. Experts said the target of Burns unit is to take good care of the patient coming to the hospitals. While those with less than 40 per cent burns have very good chances of recovery, those with 40 to 60 per cent burns are critical and have a 50-50 chance. Above 60 per cent burns it is difficult to revive even in highly advanced centres. They said the focus of burns unit would be to save maximum people coming with 40 to 60 per cent burns.