Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare inaugurated the newly constructed Burns and Plastic Surgery Block of AIIMS, New Delhi and dedicated it to Sushruta, ‘The Father of Plastic Surgery’.
He said, “Burn injury is one of the biggest causes of workforce loss and this is an issue of concern for a rapidly developing economy like India. India has as many as 70 lakh burn injuries annually with mortality rate as high as 1.4 lakhs per year and an additional 2.4 lakhs patients end up with severe deformities. Due to its large population, most of the burn care facilities are overburdened and the state-of-the-art burn care is negligible. There is a dire need for a healthcare facility which can provide high quality care for large fraction of population. The new Burns & Plastic Surgery Block has been conceived with the vision of providing state-of-the-art care in the field of burns management and research.”
This Block has three goals. Firstly, to reduce the number of deaths due to burns; a present death toll of 1.4 lakhs a year due to burn is not good. The important determinant of death in burn patients is infection. This facility has individual cubicles in ICU for 30 patients and 10 private isolation beds. Secondly, by adhering to standard protocols it will be able to reduce number of people who will end up with deformities. Third is to bring down the costs; management of burns involve direct and indirect costs. Direct cost is spent on medical care, and indirect loss is the economic impact due to loss of job, loss of wages, loss of productivity and loss of training etc.
