A 100 bed Burns and Plastic Surgery Block will come up at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to provide state of the art primary and tertiary care for burn patients.
The proposal has been approved by the Union Health Ministry and the AIIMS authorities are in the process of seeking clearances from the concerned agencies to start the construction.
"The ten storeyed building will come up at existing Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre, AIIMS premises. It will also have laboratory for regenerative medicine so that we are able to develop artificial skin for the burn victims," said AIIMS Director M.C. Mishra.
The proposal is the brain child of Dr Maneesh Singhal of the department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, AIIMS.
He said an estimated 6 to 7 million people suffered burn injuries in India annually. Nearly 10 per cent of these are life threatening and require hospitalisation.
"Even in the capital city, there are less than 200 beds for burn management to cater to the needs of burn victims. The matter that really burdens the crumbling infrastructure in the capital is the fact that most of the burn patients are from outside Delhi, coming from other states as far as Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh," said Dr Singhal.
"Also, there are nearly 70,000 burn injuries per year in Delhi and thus 200 beds in Burn Unit of Safdarjung and other hospitals are not sufficient for the ever increasing load of burn injuries in the capital.
"The Safdarjung Hospital's Burn unit gets between 5500 to 6000 burn victims annually, but has the capacity to admit only 1700-1800 patients annually. This Facility is expected to cater to approximately 10,000 emergency patients and admit approximately 1000 patients with burn injuries," he said.
Currently, only four hospitals, Safdarjung, RML, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital (LNJP) and Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) have the facilities to treat burn patients.
AIIMS does not have the facility to treat emergency burn patients.
"Burn care is a huge challenge in India having the highest female mortality globally due to flame burns. Data of National Crime Record Bureau suggest that 9 per cent of injury related deaths are due to burns," he said.
"There are ever rising incidents of acid attacks on women and related burn injuries in the country, especially in the capital, which further call for augmentation of facility for reconstructive and regenerative approaches for care of these victims," said Dr Mishra.
