Introduction: A significant amount of minor burns are managed in primary care. Many general practice clinics are geographically distant from specialist plastic surgery centres and rely on locally available resources or phone consults with plastics services to manage minor burns.
Method: All general practitioners and practice nurses in the lower South Island were surveyed, exploring their experience with burns management in primary care.
Results: The preliminary results raise some interesting questions. Most of the burns care is undertaken by practice nurses. The majority of clinicians have had no specific burns training and feel their practice would improve with further burns training. A large amount of clinicians do not have access to useful guidelines or to recommended wound dressing products. A concerning trend emerging is the significant amount of patients who do not apply cooling cares to burns prior to seeking medical attention.
Conclusion: Understanding the challenges of burns management in primary care allows the secondary services to better support GP clinics. Good management of minor burns by general practice clinics will result in better outcomes for patients.