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Specialist treatment for burn patients
Following is a question by the Hon Mok Ying-fan and a reply by the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
The Pat Sin Leng hill fire tragedy, which resulted in a number of deaths and critical burns cases, has aroused public concern. In view of this, will the Government inform this Council:
Reply:
(a)
(b)
(c)
which public hospitals have specialist burns units to deal specifically with burns cases and how these units operate;
of the number of burns patients who have received treatment, and the number of operations on burns patients in these units from 1993 to 1996; and
of the success rate in the treatment of severely burned patients (with burns up to one-third or more of their bodies) in public hospitals during the same period, and how it compares with the respective success rates in the United States, Britain, Japan and China?
Specialist treatment for burns patients is provided in the isolation facilities of seven major acute hospitals namely Queen Mary Hospital, Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kwong Wah Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital and Tuen Mun Hospital.
Since the statistics in respect of 1995 are still being finalised, only the number of burns patients admitted into public hospitals up to 1994 are available. The relevant figures are 1 910 in 1991, 1 735 in 1992, 1 674 in 1993 and 1 622 in 1994 respectively. On average, about 15% to 20% of these patients would require some form of surgical operations during the acute phase of their injury.
It will be difficult to ascertain the degree of success achieved by specialist treatment provided for burns patients which is dependent not only on severity of the injury, but also other factors such as age, location and depth of the burns, inhalation injuries as well as other underlying medical conditions. Furthermore, given the lack of local clinical data on the outcome of treatment for burns patients, it would not be possible to make a direct comparison with other countries.
End