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Jul 03, 2015 News
The transformation of two of the six rooms of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC)’s Burn Care Unit to cater to critical patients is among the plans to help improve the delivery of care. Although critical burn patients should remain in isolation while hospitalised, this is currently not the case at the GPHC, as they are instead taken to the hospital’s general Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
This disclosure was made by head of the facility, Dr Shilindra Rajkumar, who has also recommended the addition of a social area for patients where they can socialise and also exercise as they recover.
But the addition of an operating theatre will especially help to improve the efficiency of the unit. Dr Rajkumar says he has already identified an area on the ground level unit that could be converted into a Burn Operating Theatre complete with operating bed, all other necessary equipment and a ventilator. With this in place, patients can be easily moved from their isolated rooms in the unit to the theatre to be operated on. Presently patients in the unit are taken to a flat above the unit to access the theatre.
So optimistic is Dr Rajkumar about the realisation of his recommendations for the unit, that a few years ago he prepared a protocol that details the requisite equipment. The protocol was presented to the hospital’s administration. While some of the items have already been acquired, additional supportive care materials are yet to be obtained.
“I have made my wish; I just wait for them to come through. Apparently it is going to be happening but I guess finances and other things have to be considered,” said Dr Rajkumar as he noted that the staff is prepared to work with what it has until “some lucrative donor comes and takes that on.”
Dr Rajkumar, a Consultant Surgeon, has an extensive wish list to aid the improved operation of facility, with the ICU rooms and the theatre being labelled of paramount importance.
He however noted that a move to augment the current staff capacity could lend to an improved operation. Dr Rajkumar is of the belief that with two more medical officers and about 20 nurses, the staffing need would be at a better place. Currently the facility is staffed by two surgeons, one medical officer and 12 nurses.
“It is telling on us because we have to stay around…and we can’t have too much of a social life…So it is quite challenging to run a unit like this,” said Dr Rajkumar.
Speaking directly to the importance of the doctors attached to the unit, he disclosed that “as it is now, if one of us is to take leave it puts unfair stress on the other doctors. I have to be careful when I take leave…I can’t leave during a busy period because it leaves an additional strain and people can get frustrated.”
According to him, “we are kind of happy when it isn’t busy as it is right now.” At the time of his disclosure, four patients were admitted in the Unit.
Although the facility has a limited six-bed capacity, Dr Rajkumar disclosed that contingency plans are in place should there be need to cater to more patients. According to him once the patients in need of burn care exceed six at one time, the situation will be treated as a “mass casualty.”
This therefore means that efforts will be engaged to relocate the least critical patients to other wards and when this tactic is exhausted, attempts will be made to collaborate with private hospitals that can facilitate critical burn patients.
“We have never had a cause to go to that extent and hopefully we don’t,” Dr Rajkumar said.
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