Mumbai: With a major upgrade on the anvil, RN Cooper Hospital will soon have a state-of-the-art burn centre and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has approached leading plastic surgeons for suggestions on the same.
While the civic body-run medical colleges and a few periphery hospitals have plastic surgery units, where burn injuries are treated, they are plagued by a lack of beds and expertise in complicated third-degree burn cases. Such patients are generally transferred to Airoli’s National Burns Centre (NBC).
“RN Cooper Hospital, one of our four medical colleges, has a 16-bed facility for burn patients. We plan to upgrade the unit to a state-of-the-art facility. We spoke to Dr Suhas Abhyankar, plastic and aesthetic surgeon, who also helped us set up the unit. He will be suggesting our team on how to upgrade the facility,” a senior BMC health official said.
KEM, Kasturba and Sion hospitals also have burn units, however, they are in an acute need of dedicated and trained staff, the official added.
Stating that these burn units are not up to the mark, another BMC health official said, “In an inspection conducted nine years ago, it was found that the units need to be spruced up. We need dedicated ICU facilities and anaesthetists in these units. The nurse-patient ratio too is not good. Burn victims require critical care management.”
Earlier, a committee was formed by then additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar and Dr Sunil Keswani of NBC was invited for guidance in 2014. “Meetings were held to set up the burn centre on the RN Cooper Hospital premises. While things were moving at a fast pace, Mhaiskar was transferred and since then no development has happened on that front,” a senior health official from Cooper Hospital said on condition of anonymity.
As per the original plan, the department planned to have a 25-bedded burn centre for which inputs would be taken from experts.
Currently, severe burn cases are transferred to NBC—one of the largest specialised burns hospitals in the country. However, the high cost of treatment acts as a deterrent to the underprivileged.
Last month, six members of a family were shifted to NBC from BMC’s Bhabha Hospital in Bandra out of which two died. NBC on humanitarian grounds waived off the hospital stay, ICU, surgery and doctors’ charges and only charged money for medicines and consumables.
“For any burn patient with 40% or more burn injury, medicines and consumables run to ₹8 lakh. Sometimes it goes up to ₹20 lakh or more depending on the condition. We had some funds and decided to waive off the charges on humanitarian grounds,” Dr Keswani said.
