Anticipating Diwali injuries, Delhi hospitals reserve beds, staff

At Safdarjung Hospital, the entire burn unit as well as additional nurses have been asked to report for duty on Thursday

Hospitals across Delhi have earmarked beds, kept staff on standby, and added counters to receive people with burn injuries, expecting an increase in such cases on Diwali, which will be celebrated on Thursday.

AIIMS has posted more people from the surgery department to the emergency department to take care of burn patients. In addition, they have also stocked up on medicines and consumables needed for treating burn cases. (HT Archive)

Doctors said that there could be a higher number of burn cases this year as compared to last year.

“Last year, there were very few burn cases, most likely because of Covid-19. There was a high number of Covid-19 cases being reported in November. However, this year we expect the number of burn cases to be higher than last year. Each year, we treat around 40 Diwali-related burn injuries,” said a senior doctor from Lok Nayak Hospital. The hospital has earmarked 40 beds in the emergency department for burn injuries.

At Safdarjung Hospital, the entire burn unit as well as additional nurses have been asked to report for duty on Thursday. “We have created four additional counters to receive burn emergency cases,” said a senior doctor from the hospital.

At All India Institute of Medical Sciences across the road, doctors from the surgical department have been posted to the emergency department for Diwali night. “We have posted more people from the surgery department to the emergency department to take care of burn patients. In addition, we have also stocked up on medicines and consumables needed for treating burn cases. We have to be prepared even though the number of burn injuries has reduced over the years, especially after the Supreme Court’s cracker ban,” said a senior doctor from the hospital.

He added that since the Supreme Court’s order in 2017, which banned the use and sale of toxic crackers, the four major government hospitals that receive the highest number of burn patients in the national Capital--Lok Nayak Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital, RML Hospital and GTB Hospital--have seen a 51% decline in the number of burn cases even before the pandemic.