Users Of Flammable Materials To Blame For 80% Burn Accidents
Eighty per cent of all burn accidents are as a result of carelessness on the part of users of flammable materials, the Director of the Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns (RPSB) Centre of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, has said.
He said as the country harnessed its oil and gas potential and promoted the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), it was important to educate the public on the safe use of LPG and other flammables.
Dr Ampomah said this when the centre took delivery of four patient monitors, which were presented to the centre by the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashietey, on behalf of President John Evans Atta Mills.
The equipment valued at GH¢ 45,000 was in fulfilment of a pledge made by the government when a tour of the Tema General Hospital and Korle Bu Teaching Hospital accident and burns centres, by the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, revealed that the absence of the equipment was hampering efforts to save the lives of burns and accident victims.
During the tour of the two hospitals by the deputy minister, he visited victims of the Ashaiman gas explosion which resulted in injury to 16 people and resulted in the death of three people.
Earlier, the government had donated similar equipment and drugs valued at GH¢ 26,000 to the Tema General Hospital.
Dr Ampomah, who received the equipment, said it would go a long way to complement the expertise of the health professionals as the centre strived to deliver quality health care.
“The work can be quite challenging. Therefore, we need a lot of support to deliver quality health care,” he said.
He assured the public that the centre would continue to be one of excellence in reconstructive plastic and burns in the West Africa sub-region.
He, however, appealed to the public, especially corporate institutions, to go to the aid of the centre, as currently it needed to expand in order to meet the growing health needs of the people.
Presenting the equipment, the Greater Accra Regional Minister bemoaned the increasing negligence on the part of some people using flammables like LPG.
“It is regrettable and unfortunate that through somebody’s negligence, people have to get injured or even die.”
“If you are dealing with flammables like gas, there are special handling procedures that need to be observed but people take such things for granted,” he stated.
He advised the public against the use of LPG cylinders and other flammable substances in the open.
While commending the staff of the centre for their dedicated service in ensuring that victims of accidents were kept alive, he also urged them to take good care of equipment so they could serve generations to come.
First opened in 1997, the RPSB Centre receives between 50 and 80 patients daily and attended to some 7,000 patients last year.