00:00With multiple industrial estates across Trinidad and the Pointe-A-Pair refineries proposed reopening,
00:05the risk of severe burn incidents is present, says President of the Greater San Fernando Area Chamber of Commerce, Kiran Singh.
00:14It's why on Tuesday afternoon, he called on the board of directors of the SWRHA to consider establishing a burns centre locally.
00:23But according to SWRHA Director Dr. Anand Chattergun, while local medical professionals can't properly treat and stabilise cases in the existing burns ward of the San Fernando General Hospital,
00:36they aren't trained to deal with severe cases.
00:40There are just about two cases of severe burns that we get per year.
00:45We get superficial burns which we can handle in the burns ward.
00:49But the severe burns require doctors with special skills which we don't have, and nurses with special skills whom we don't also have.
01:00And the reason for that is the doctors and the nurses will not stay with us because they don't see enough, and therefore they go to other places.
01:07It's why he says the best chance a person would have is elsewhere.
01:11The best thing to do for them to give them the best chance is to send them abroad to the Jackson Memorial Hospital with mortality rate is very high with severe burns.
01:21But when we look at it, and we say, okay, so we don't have these burn centres, and what are we going to do?
01:26We only get two a year.
01:28So how are we going to maintain it?
01:29What about the nurses?
01:30We are short of nurses.
01:31The SWRHA directors were asked to reconsider their position on establishing a burn centre by Deputy Mayor of the Borough of Separia, Shankar Tilak Singh.
01:42It is easier to find service providers with service agreement, and it will be less cost-effective to at least attend to a patient in Trinidad, rather than flying them out when there is an incident.
01:56This year alone, there were at least three gas tank explosion-linked deaths.
02:02TV6 asked if treatment abroad was an option for those victims.
02:07It can be easily air-ambulanced.
02:09This thing just doesn't matter, though.
02:11Was that an option for the gas tank explosion deaths?
02:14You mean what?
02:15To send them abroad?
02:16Was that an option?
02:17There's always the option.
02:20Was that presented to these families?
02:22It's not, but I do not know if the company were willing to do that because their family would not have had the money.
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