Qatar’s only dedicated Burns Unit located at Al Wakra Hospital under Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) received 7,900 patients at its outpatient clinics last year.

The hospital also cared for 108 patients with burn related injuries who were treated in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, 263 patients who required surgical intervention, 230 patients who were treated as inpatients, and 175 patients who received reconstructive burn treatment at the hospital’s Plastic Surgery Division.

Al Wakra HospitalAccording to Parwaneh Al Shibani, Assistant Executive Director of Nursing at Al Wakra Hospital, the Burns Unit provides comprehensive burn care to patients of all ages every year. She said they treat patients from the time of acute injury through to long-term rehabilitation. Many of their patients are transferred from other hospitals in Qatar.

In addition to the burn care provided by our specialised team of doctors, nurses, and physiotherapists, we work closely with government agencies including the General Directorate of Civil Defence, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, and the Primary Health Care Corporation, as part of our programme to prevent burn injuries.’

She said that through their public education efforts, they provide information about the importance of timely and adequate treatment of burns.

As part of our public education programme we also work to correct misconceptions about the treatment of burn injuries in order to reduce complications caused by improper treatment of burns.’

The Burns Unit at Al Wakra Hospital was relocated from Rumailah Hospital in 2014. The state-of-the-art facility was moved to Al Wakra as part of HMC’s efforts to transform its key clinical services in response to managing the healthcare requirements of Qatar’s growing population.

The modern, purpose-built facility uses the latest equipment and techniques to treat severely burned patients and those with minor burn related injuries. Situated over two floors at Al Waka Hospital, the Burns Unit has a dedicated operating room, inpatient rooms, an occupational therapy room, consulting rooms for outpatients, and reception and recovery spaces.

The care a patient needs depends upon the severity of the burn, added Al Shibani. More serious injuries will require treatment by a larger multidisciplinary team. While located at Al Wakra Hospital, patients treated by the Burns Unit have access to the combined knowledge and expertise of clinicians working across HMC. This means a patient who is critically ill may first be monitored at the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Hamad General Hospital, before being transferred to the Burns Unit once their condition stabilises.

Patients treated at the Burns Unit are supported round the clock by physicians from more than a dozen medical and surgical specialties, including neurosurgery and vascular surgery. We work together as a team to assess a patient’s injuries and develop the most appropriate course of care.’

Between January and June of this year, the Burns Unit received 4,340 patients at its outpatient clinics. In the case of paediatric patients with burn injuries, Al Shibani said that staff at the Burns Unit work closely with the Paediatric Emergency Centres and Sidra Medicine. She said that integrated care is the cornerstone of the approach used to treat all patients at the unit.

For updates and more information about the services available at the different facilities of HMC, visit hamad.qa