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Lone Burn Unitat DMCH - Part I

Patients everywhere, on the verandas and corridors

Durdana Ghias
Dhaka Medical College Hospital's (DMCH) burn unit is witnessing an overwhelming number of patients since its inception and treating burn victims around four times its capacity.
The 50-bed unit set up in 2003 is the county's only facility to treat burn patients as no other government or private hospital has such unit.
The unit admits on average 10 patients a day. On April 17, the unit had 218 under-treatment patients of whom 81 were children.
Besides, the unit treats around 100 outdoor patients a day.
According to sources at the unit, around 1.5 lakh people suffer from bum injuries every year, majority of whom are poor and children.
Most of the time the verandas, corridors and other spare spaces of the unit remain filled with patients.
Halima, mother of 2-year old Sadia from Bikrampur, was sitting beside her daughter lying on a mattress on the floor. "We are waiting for a bed but it seems it will be difficult to get one," said the mother.
Doctors said that patients might suffer from infection if they stay on the floor but they have little to do because accommodation facility is limited.
"Just two weeks ago this unit had 47 child patients and it was ■difficult to even walk on the floor," said a doctor at the unit.
We have to place beds at the corridor and even allow many patients to stay on the floor at the wards in order to accommodate more patients because we can-not refuse to admit them," he said.
The rate of burn injuries increases during the winter when people sit around a fire to warm themselves up mostly in the villages and slum areas. The daily
admission rate is around 15 at that time, said hospital sources.
Even though the unit is treating around 200 burn patients every day it receives fund for only 50 patients as it is officially a 50-bed unit. As a result, there exists a
consistent shortage of cotton, gauge, saline and other medicines that the patients have to buy from outside.
"I had to buy injections and other medicines from outside because the hospital cannot supply all the medicines," said father of a child patient at the 1 ligh Dependency Unit (HDU).
I lowever, the antibiotic cream for burn is available, said the patients.
" Five pots of antibiotic cream, each containing 500 grams, are needed to treat an average burn injury from 30 to 40 percent. We need around 150 pots a week to treat our patients. At present we have the supply for the next three months," said a doctor.
Doctors said the first 24 hours of a burn patient is very crucial for treatment. "But due to the lack of burn units at district and others medical college hospitals most of the time people from outside Dhaka do not get proper treatment in the first 24 hours,” said a doctor at DMCH burn unit.
Kamela, mother of burn patient Shimul from Natore, said she at first took her son to Natore Sadar Hospital but that was of no use.
"When I took him to Sadar Hospital they did not even touch my son saying that the treatment is not possible there. Then I took him to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital where they gave him only saline and dressing, and asked me to take him to DMCH bum unit as soon as possible," said Kamela.
"Bum is a very serious injury and demands expensive treatment which the poor cannot afford at the private hospitals. Therefore, this unit remains the only choice for them," said Dr Samanta Lal Sen, head of the unit.
From 2004 to 2007 the DMCH bum unit treated 33,584 outpatients and 3,395 inpatients. A total of 3,262 patients were operated on and 91,507 received dressing.