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STANDARDS

A Review of Burn Care in the British Isles

There are about 250,000 burn injuries each year in Britain seen in NHS hospitals. Many are preventable and some 16,000 are admitted to hospital, many to non–specialist units.

During the last two years the National Burn Care Review (NBCR) has undertaken the first ever comprehensive review of burn care throughout Britain.

The report makes five pivotal recommendations for action to provide burn care fit for the twenty first century:

  • All inpatients should receive specialist treatment. To achieve this burn care should be reorganised throughout the country into Burn Facilities, Burn Units and Burn Centres, each with a clear division into adult and paediatric wards.
  • Each Burn Centre should have dedicated intensive care facilities with full support from an adjacent intensive care unit.
  • A continuing care model for burn patients should be adopted with three new elements put in place:
           
    •   Intensive multi-specialty trauma rehabilitation services;
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    •   Outreach teams to provide support within the community;
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    • Psychological rehabilitation services for patients and families.
  • A strategy for Burn Injury Prevention should be introduced.
  • A Major Incident Plan should be created for dealing with any large number of civil or military burn casualties.

The NBCR includes all the supporting recommendations and guidance to enable these recommendations to be achieved. It is expected that it will take five to seven years to implement the full programme of change. To do this the funding of burn care must be revised so that there is adequate and specific funding for rehabilitation and for care within the community as well as for the acute period of inpatient care.