The first of the intensive care units being set up in the State to provide acute care and improve the survival of burns victims has been opened at the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) here.
The 10-bed intensive care unit (ICU), with all facilities for maintaining a sterile environment and ventilation with one hundred per cent fresh air circulation, was inaugurated by Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar here on Thursday.
The facility has been set up at Rs.1 crore, from the Rs.5 crore allocated in the 2013-14 budget for launching burns care facilities in all five Government MCHs.
Neglected area
Burns care has remained a totally neglected area in modern medical care, both in the public as well as private sector, despite the fact that innumerable cases of burns — accidents as well as suicide bids through self-immolation — are reported on a regular basis.
Most of the burns victims are young women, mostly from poor families
Though a four-bed ICU had been set up at the hospital with the help of the alumni association in 2008, the facility could not be maintained properly.
“Burns patients need extra care intensive care, lots of fluids and expensive antibiotics and they cannot be cared for in an open area, because the possibility of infections is quite high. Our case load is quite high with at least 10 to 12 cases of major burns every week. The mortality rate is quite high as a significant percentage of the victims have over 60 per cent burns,” points out A.C. Premlal, Assistant Professor, Plastic Surgery, and State Nodal Officer, Trauma and Burns project.
“With extra care, the chances of survival of those with 40 to 60 per cent burns can be improved tremendously. At present, our aim is to focus on these patients and provide them with acute care. In the second phase, we propose to set up an operation theatre for skin excision and grafting and a step down care nit also,” he added.
In 2012, the MCH had 257 burns cases, of which, 127 patients died. But at least half of these patients with 40-60 per cent burns, could have been saved. In 2013, of the 211 burns cases, 88 patients had died. At least 33 per cent of these cases could have been salvaged, if they had received special care.
Liquid oxygen plant
A liquid oxygen plant to provide uninterrupted supply of oxygen to all operation theatres and ICUs and wards in MCH as well as a common kitchen to provide free food to patients were also inaugurated by Mr. Sivakumar.
