The state government has announced the establishment of a specialised burn treatment centre in Malvani.
Health minister Dr Deepak Sawant said the specialised unit will be established at the state public health department's hospital in Malvani. "At present, Mumbai has a burn and an intensive burn care unit at Masina Hospital and the National Burns Centre in Airoli, with no specialised state-run facility. I have asked for the plan to be prepared," he added.
A senior official from the state health department said the burn centre would have 24 beds.
"The Malvani facility has 60 beds and we plan to expand it to 200 with specialities like cardiac care, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), burns, AYUSH, and sick newborn care unit (SNCU)," he said, adding that the financial estimate for work on the burn care unit would be drawn up by the state public works department (PWD).
Another official said once basic facilities in the specialised burns treatment centre are established, it may be expanded to include a skin bank for re-constructive surgeries.
Mumbai has special burns wards at the BMC's Sion, KEM, and Kasturba hospital. However, this burn care unit will be more specialised than the burn wards at the state-run civic hospitals, an official said.
"The burns ward need more space as patients cannot be kept close to each other due to chances of infection. Hence, a certain level of quarantine has to be achieved. Statistically, it has been revealed that the number of women and children outstrip men when it comes to burns injuries and chances of mortality are higher in cases where burn injuries exceed 60per cent," he added.
Sawant also mooted the idea for a boat ambulance service between Mumbai and Alibaug. He added that he had also pushed for an air ambulance service to cater to accident victims on the Mumbai-Pune expressway and a bike ambulance service for remote, tribal areas like Palghar and Melghat.
