Pvt hospitals fear high mortality chances

Expensive intensive care and high risk of mortality in burns cases are the two major reasons that have refrained private hospitals from setting up a burns unit in Gurgaon. Himabindu Reddy reports.

Expensive intensive care and high risk of mortality in burns cases are the two major reasons that have refrained private hospitals from setting up a burns unit in Gurgaon.

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Doctors in the healthcare hub say the functioning of a burns ward demands high levels of sophistication and expertise, which is not available in Gurgaon.

“Setting up and maintaining a burns ward is not easy. A separate room with adequate staff needs to be made available for its functioning. Moreover, the room has to have an anti-bacterial environment. Providing dedicated intensive care is very expensive,” said Dr Manish Prabhakar, president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Gurgaon chapter.

Due to the high risk of the spread of infection in a severe burns case, the presence of an expert is indispensable. But there are very few experts in this field, said doctors.

None of Gurgaon’s multi-specialty hospitals have a burns ward except for the government health facility — civil hospital — which admits patients with up to 40% burns.

Another reason for the absence of this facility is that most burns cases are medico-legal, thereby involving the local police, courts and family.

“In most countries, it is only public hospitals that have a burns ward as they have a mechanism to deal with the police and law. Most burns cases are medico-legal,” said Dr Naresh Trehan, chairman and managing director of Medanta – The Medicity.