Where and how are burn victims treated in Azerbaijan?
Burn treatment in Azerbaijan
“It happened on December 13. We were at my brother’s house. My daughter, Medina, had just returned from school. She went to the kitchen to eat. When I brought a bowl of hot soup and was about to place it on the table, my daughter suddenly stood up. We collided, and the food spilled on her, burning her face, neck, and throat.”
Havva Salman, a 33-year-old mother of two, says she had no idea that burn victims face serious difficulties accessing medical care until this incident happened to her child.
“At that moment, we tried to remove her clothes. As an initial intervention, we applied toothpaste, having heard it was effective. Later, we learned from the doctor that we shouldn’t have done that. By the time we reached the hospital, the child’s skin had started peeling off.”
The family decided to take the child to Clinical Medical Centre No. 1. According to Havva Salman, little Medina was not provided with medical assistance there.
“They told us, ‘We don’t treat burns here; the burn unit is at Hospital No. 5.’ It seems that was also moved to Hospital No. 6. So, we went to Hospital No. 6. No one even looked at the child. There, we were told that there is no burn unit in any hospital in the city. We were directed to go out of town—to Buzovna.
It was cold and rainy outside, and we were left standing with a child in our arms, unable to find a hospital that could take us. Buzovna is an hour’s drive away from us, not counting traffic.
Since it was on our way, we also stopped at Baku Medical Plaza. It turned out they didn’t have a burn unit either. From there, we finally headed to the hospital in Buzovna.”
“The hospital’s doctors are good, but the conditions are terrible”
Eventually, the child was taken to Hospital No. 14 in Buzovna, a settlement on the outskirts of Baku. It took five hours after the accident for the minor with third-degree burns to receive medical care.
“Fortunately, the doctors acted quickly upon our arrival at the hospital. They treated the child’s wounds carefully, doing their best to ease her suffering. This attention to the emotional needs of young patients is an important part of their work.
Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the hospital’s conditions. It’s located in a remote area, and we even had trouble finding the entrance, as there was no sign with the hospital’s name. The department’s name was written on an A4 sheet of paper taped to a door—with a typo.
The medical procedures for the child were performed in a small room the size of a kitchen. The room, heated with an electric stove, was cold, and the child was shivering. We asked for a blanket to cover her, but they didn’t have one.
When another child with burns arrived by ambulance and was brought into the same room, we realized that the ‘burn unit’ consisted of just one room. This child had also been driven around the entire city with burns before being brought here.
Havva Salman says that during their search for medical help, they not only visited various hospitals but also contacted TƏBİB (the Administration of Regional Medical Divisions) to request assistance. However, according to her, the institution confirmed that the only burn unit was located at Hospital No. 14 in Buzovna.
“When we expressed our surprise that such a large city has only one burn centre, located in Buzovna, which is very difficult to reach from other parts of the city, they told us we should have called an ambulance and taken the child in an ambulance,” Havva Salman recounts.
Is there only one specialized burn centre in the entire country?
According to JAMnews, the press service of TƏBİB confirmed that Azerbaijan has only one specialized burn centre. Even citizens living in remote areas outside Baku have no choice but to travel to this facility.
“However, our medical institutions have appropriate departments that provide necessary medical care to anyone with burns. If more specialized care is required, depending on the severity of the condition, patients are transferred to the specialized centre in Baku,” TƏBİB stated.
“Hospitals have no right to refuse emergency care”
Professor Adil Geybulla argues that even if a specialized burn unit was unavailable, the patient should have been provided with primary care at any hospital.
“Burn victims require urgent assistance. Primary medical care must be provided in any surgical hospital. Even general hospitals can handle this. In other words, all hospitals with dressing materials and sterile equipment should be able to manage it.
As for patients with severe burns, they should, of course, be placed in a specialized intensive care unit. Previously, there was a burn centre at Hospital No. 5, but it has since been relocated. However, any surgical hospital should have the capacity to treat burns. This is a standard practice worldwide. Hospitals have no right to refuse to provide emergency care,” the doctor emphasized.
Adil Geybulla adds that these issues arise because hospitals are still adapting to the new mandatory health insurance system.
“You see, with the introduction of the mandatory health insurance system, the associative connections between hospitals are not yet fully established. During the Soviet era, every hospital had a specific purpose. Now these processes need to be reorganized.
But in any case, emergency care requires immediate intervention and can save a patient’s life. First aid must be provided to patients in need at any hospital because the primary goal of emergency care is to save lives.”
More than a month has passed since the accident, and 9-year-old Medina’s wounds are gradually healing. However, her family still vividly remembers the pain of that day.
“Thank God, Medina is now doing well. The main wounds have healed, but she is still under medical supervision, and we continue to go for bandage changes. The doctors say that since the wounds are deep, there is a chance scars may remain, but they will do their best to prevent that. I believe this incident is a mirror reflecting the flaws in our healthcare system,” her mother said.
