Burn trauma unit at Hamilton General Hospital radically scaled back
Hamilton has gone more than a year without a fully functioning burn trauma unit, resulting in 27 patients so far being sent to Toronto for care.
The unit at Hamilton General Hospital has been radically scaled back since losing a key surgeon in the fall of 2020.
While Hamilton Health Sciences has taken more than a year to recruit another medical director, the unit has been limited to treating burns to less than 20 per cent of the body. As a result, critical burn patients must go to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
We're deeply concerned that it's taking as long as it is to find a replacement doctor," said Stan Double, president of the Hamilton Professional Firefighters Association, Local 288. We've committed a tremendous amount of time, energy and effort and raised a lot of money to get the burn unit to the outstanding level that it's at. We're committed to continuing to see it operating in the Hamilton area. We certainly will be, in the next little while, initiating a campaign of some sort to ensure that happens and clarifying exactly what's going on."
HHS expected it to take a year to find a replacement for Dr. Sarah Appleton after she left for an opportunity in another community, the hospital network said in a statement. She is listed as working for London Health Sciences Centre and Western University.
In the meantime, a decision was made to transfer critical burn cases to Sunnybrook on an interim basis until the appropriate dedicated surgical support could be resumed at HHS."
The program is supported by multiple Hamilton plastic surgeons but Appleton was the only designated burn surgeon.
The medical director position is an essential and primary surgical specialist required for the program to resume the care of patients with critical burns," said HHS.
It's not clear why the position is still vacant after more than one year, although HHS noted it's a highly specialized job.
It's about time to ask why it's taking so long," said Double. It's a tremendous unit within the hospital system of Hamilton. If it's being underutilized, all of our community leaders need to find a way to ensure that it's operating at its maximum capacity and providing a service to the citizens of Hamilton and surrounding areas that they need, require and deserve."
The unit has cared for 80 patients with less serious burns since the fall of 2020. HHS says it will resume treating those with critical burns once the unit has a medical director in place again.
We have been aggressively recruiting," said HHS. We hope to share an update about this role in the coming weeks."
The loss over the last year is significant considering Hamilton General and Sunnybrook have the only units in the province with this level of specialized care.
HHS and Sunnybrook have a history of reciprocal support and patients may receive care at either hospital," said the Hamilton network.
Double expressed significant concern about Hamilton no longer treating critical burns.
A long time ago, we saw a need for this burn trauma centre here in Hamilton and we got on board with ensuring it was up and running and operating at its best capacity and delivering a tremendous service," he said. This awesome facility is right now being underutilized and it's taking a considerable long time to find a replacement doctor."
Joanna Frketich is a health reporter at The Spectator. jfrketich@thespec.com