New Delhi: Only a few hospitals have burn wards for treating victims of fire incidents in a city like Delhi, which has seen over 500 people getting injured in such incidents on an average every year from 2017.
Only a few hospitals such as the Centre-run Safdarjung Hospital and Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital and the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Narayan Hospital have full-fledged facilities for treating burn victims and some facilities are available at the State-run Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital.
Earlier this year, a burns and plastic surgery unit was inaugurated at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
Delhi Fire Services (DFS) Director Atul Garg wrote a letter to the chief executive officer of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) last month, flagging the issue.
"On October 9, an industrial building at Narela collapsed during a fire-fighting operation...this department...shifted the injured persons to the nearest Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra Hospital, where they were given first aid and referred to a higher centre as they were not having a burn ward. They were then shifted to Sir Gangaram Hospital, where the doctor denied admission as the hospital did not have a burn unit. It was very difficult to manage the situation as the emotional outrush was very high at that time," the letter read.
In the letter, Garg had urged that burn wards with trained specialist doctors and nurses be opened in all major private hospitals so the injured can get specialised medical treatment and care as quick as possible.
"The letter was written after the fire-fighters of our own departments engaged in the fire-fighting operations at Narela sustained burn injuries. That is when we got to know that no private hospital has a burn ward here and only a few government-run hospitals are equipped with burn wards," Garg said.
According to the DFS' data, 549 people were injured and 79 died in fire-related incidents in 2017, 553 were injured and 95 died in 2018, 843 were injured and 100 died in 2019, 421 were injured and 41 died in 2020 while from January till November 19 in 2021, 327 people were injured and 70 died in such incidents.
Doctors at the burn wards of the government-run hospitals said no private hospital has a separate burn ward here, but some of those facilities have a few rooms where minor cases of burn injuries are treated.