Burn Treatment Center is located at Walfredo Gurgel Hospital Inter TV Cabugi/File The Public Ministry of Rio Grande do Norte (MPRN) and the Public Defender's Office (DPERN) filed a lawsuit to force the State Government to resume work on the Burn Treatment Center (CTQ) at Monsenhor Walfredo Gurgel Hospital, in Natal. According to the bodies, the renovation is at a standstill and has reduced the unit's capacity from 22 to 12 beds. In the action, the MPRN and the Public Defender's Office ask that the Court determine, as a matter of urgency, that the State resume the work within 30 days, through emergency contracting or another mechanism provided for by law. ? Click here to follow the g1 RN channel on WhatsApp The g1 report contacted the RN State Department of Public Health (Sesap), but received no response until the last update of this report. The CTQ is the only public service specialized in caring for patients with burns in Rio Grande do Norte and receives cases from across the state, including children with severe burns. READ ALSO: Woman has 45% of her body burned after falling into a bonfire and is transferred to Natal The bodies also request that a schedule be presented to complete the renovation within 90 days and, at the end of the process, that the State be ordered to fully complete the work within 120 days, in addition to purchasing equipment and hiring professionals to restore the unit's capacity. Work accumulates delays According to the action, the renovation began in June 2024 and should last three months. The first contracted company abandoned the work in August 2025. A new emergency contract was signed in December of the same year, but, approximately 150 days after the service order, only 2.33% of the work had been carried out, according to the report of the engineer responsible for supervision. The contract ended up being terminated and, until the lawsuit was filed, no new hires had been made. Compromised structure Inspections carried out by the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Public Defender's Office and the Regional Council of Medicine of RN showed that several sectors of the center stopped functioning during the renovation. According to the bodies, the balneotherapy room, the room exclusively for dressings, the rehabilitation gym, isolation and semi-intensive care beds, in addition to medical rest, were deactivated. The outpatient clinic, which provided around 22,000 visits per year, started to operate only two days a week in an improvised space. The inspections also recorded infiltrations, debris, dust, exposed wiring and problems with the unit's air conditioning. In an inspection carried out in June this year, Cremern identified that 21 burn patients were monitored by the specialized team, but only 12 were hospitalized in the center itself. The other nine needed to be distributed to other sectors of the hospital, such as ICUs and wards. The action also highlights a lack of professionals in the unit. According to the MPRN and the Public Defender's Office, the center does not have a general practitioner at night or an exclusive full-time nursing team. The number of physiotherapists and occupational therapists is also below that recommended by the Ministry of Health.