Burns Unit

The 6-bedded Burns Unit for adults and is a Sub-Regional Unit based at Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital. It provides a service managed and supported by 3 Consultant Burn Surgeon’s and a comprehensive in-patient, out-patient and emergency service for the local population of Sheffield and also to the wider North Trent population, approximately 2 million in total.

Cases requiring I.T.U facilities are cared for in the General Intensive Care Unit at the Northern General Hospital.

Burns services are well supported by the full range of clinical specialties within Sheffield Teaching Hospital’s Trust and by comprehensive support services.

Please note that patients are seen by referral only. If you feel you require a referral, please contact your General Practitioner or attend an emergency department if urgent.

Tel : 01142 714129 or 01142 714126

The burns team includes many different professionals who help provide the patient with the best overall and wide-ranging care. This means in our team are surgeons, nurses, anaesthetists but also physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians, psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers.
 

If your or someone else experiences a burn, immediate first aid is crucial to minimize the injury. The gold standard for burn first aid is to cool the burn under cool running water for at least 20 Minutes. This helps reduce pain, swelling and depth of the burn. It’s important to start this as soon as possible after the injury, but even if some time has passed it’s still beneficial. Avoid using ice, creams, or butter on the burn as these can cause further damage. If you’re able to, remove any jewellery to the affected area too. After cooling call for medical help either 111 or 999. Then cover the burn with a clean non-stick dressing or clingfilm to prevent infection and seek medical attention.

Remember: COOL, CALL, COVER

The Burns Unit at the Northern General Hospital is an adult only, 6 bedded unit.  We care for patients from the acute critically ill phase of a burn injury through that often long process of rehabilitation and discharge.  If a patient requires intensive care and ventilation then we will share care with the Intensive Care Unit.

We provide a multidisciplinary team approach to care.  This team consists of 3 burn consultants, a registrar and team of junior doctors, an experienced nursing team, dedicated physiotherapists and occupational therapists, a psychologist and a dietician.  We also have access to other specialist teams within the Trust, such as the pain team, social work department and the discharge liaison team.

The main aim of our unit is to promote wound healing with all burn injuries where possible achieving this through good wound care management and surgical intervention if required.

We believe that our patients are individual people with their own physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs.  Our aim is to enable each patient to fulfil their needs by providing a high standard of care which is relevant to them.  As we respect our patients’ rights as individuals, so we will guarantee confidentiality and promote their privacy, dignity and safety at all times.

Each patient should have freedom of choice in their care and be provided with information and explanations about their condition to enable them to exercise that choice.  We believe that good communication is vital to this and is best encouraged by letting each patient and their families build up better relationships with named staff familiar to them.

We expect patients wherever possible to take part in the planning, implementation and evaluation of the care they receive here.  The family as a whole may be included in the various aspects of burn treatment if the patient so wishes.

We believe rehabilitation and a full return to normal life is as important as the high dependency care given initially.  To this end, self care and independence will be actively encouraged as soon as possible and included in the explanations and care planning outlined above.  We recognise that many people would welcome continued support after discharge home and these people and their families will have access to our rehabilitation and outpatient service which is run from within the unit and provides continuing wound care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and psychological care.

We feel that to achieve the above, a high priority must be given to the professional and personal development of our regular staff, with encouragement and support given to those updating their knowledge.  We think the importance we attach to learning for ourselves will be reflected in a stimulating and rewarding learning environment for our learners, with the same importance attached to their learning needs.