The State's first dedicated paediatric burns unit was formally opened yesterday by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin.
A €650,000 upgrade of the existing unit to a "state of the art" facility, means that burns treatment and related plastic surgery will be in the one unit.
The new facilities include a bed capacity of 19, mostly two- and four-bed units specially designed for the care of burns patients.
They include a specialised bathroom for the removal of bandages from burn patients.
An isolation room provides filtered air for severely burned children who no longer have an outer layer of skin, so as to avoid air-borne infection. The filtering system cost €100,000. The facilities also include a playroom with specialist toys.
Mr Ahern paid tribute to the hospital staff and commended the facilities. "It is good to see that they have user friendly facilities - not only sophisticated medical equipment but the children's playroom and everything that makes a real tragedy a little bit easier for them."
The upgrade was funded by the family and friends of the late RTÉ presenter, Ms Uaneen Fitzsimons, who died in a road traffic accident, and a number of companies, including Musgrave Ltd and Crystal Telecom.
Mr Ahern confirmed the establishment of a project team for the overall development of the hospital, including the State-funded €34.3 million project for five new operating theatres, a 13-bed day-care surgical unit and a sterile supplies unit.
Mr Frank Feely, deputy chairman of the management committee, said the burns unit was "well overdue. It is the first paediatric unit in the country and takes about 60 per cent of all children with burns." The hospital was delighted to get approval from the Government for an MRI scanner. "Children have to be brought by taxi to Beaumont and some are not fit for travel."
The former Dublin Corporation manager said the hospital now had 18,000 admissions a year and 93,000 casualty and outpatient visits. Fifty years after it was established it was doing "catch-up all the time".
"We were a little bit ashamed of the facilities for dealing with children with burns," he said, and the new facility was a major advance.
Ms Glynis Peel, clinical nurse manager of the burns unit, said "everything was a little haphazard before. But now, it's in one unit. The nurses are all very specialised and the treatment is managed from the day the children come in."
She said the " majority of our caseloads would be scalds. There would be some house fires. You'll get some children up to mischief creating bonfires and explosions, people throwing petrol on fires, children messing with aerosol sprays. They spray it and set a match as it's coming out. So they they attend us from day one to when they go to outpatient."
They have an average of between six and eight children at any time and currently extra capacity is taken up by ear, nose and throat patients.
"Our numbers are going up since we opened in January. But it will take a little while before people realise that there is a specialised paediatric burns unit.
"A child comes in with a scald and the first thing is to make a percentage of the body that's burned - how much of the body is burned and the area. It depends how much of the body is burned and the area. It's not always the percentage. If you have a hand burn, it's a small area but it's a big structure that you have to get working again."
