The new burns management unit at General Hospital, Ernakulam, set up at an estimate cost of ₹1.2 crore, is nearing completion.
The facility is getting ready for inauguration at a time when the district is facing a shortage of similar units in government facilities. Set up using the assistance from the National Health Mission, the two-storey facility is spread over 6,000 sq. ft. The intensive care unit has six beds. The civil works of the building are in the final stages, according to Dr. Shahir Shah, Superintendent, General Hospital.
Despite the launch of the unit, there is a serious lack of adequate facilities for burns treatment in government hospitals in the district. Though the Govt. Medical College Hospital, Ernakulam, has a burns unit, it lacked the expert services of a plastic surgeon.
Dr. N.K. Sanilkumar of the Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer Movement said that the multiple explosions at a religious gathering in a convention centre on October 29 exposed the gaps at the burns unit in Govt. Medical College Hospital and other government facilities in the district.
“Experts from Govt. Medical College Hospitals in Kottayam and Thrissur had to be rushed to the hospital here as the burns unit at the medical college is yet to have a specialist post of plastic surgeon, which is essential in an emergency situation as witnessed in an incident like the blasts in Kalamassery,” he said.
Senior officials of the Directorate of Health Services said that the Govt. Medical College Hospital, Ernakulam, may get the permanent post of a plastic surgeon, with the completion of the construction of the super speciality block.
