KEY POINTS:
Our picture shows just some of the people who will be involved in the care of a single patient with burns.
But nearly a year after opening, the country's national centre for treating the most complex burns remains three surgeons short.
In spite of this, the National Burn Centre at Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland has already made a big difference.
Five people struck down with a rare skin condition are alive today because of its expertise. Toxic epidermal necrolysis, a condition characterised by burn-like blistering and peeling of the skin's top layer, is often fatal.
The 10-bed centre was opened last June and cost $7.2 million to build and equip. It is where the most complex burn cases from around the country are referred. It also acts as a regional unit for Auckland and Northland.
Last year, 400 people were admitted to Middlemore with burns.
From the moment a patient comes through the doors, about 100 health professionals get involved in his or her care.
The path to recovery is slow, and often bumpy. Patients can continue to see the various people involved in their case for years.
From accident victims to casualties of P-lab explosions, the burn centre treats them all.
But with only two surgeons - clinical leader Richard Wong She and Amber Moazzam - some patients have to be turned away.
"We get by with the support of the other plastic surgeons," says Mr Wong She. "We get by because both Amber and I slave our guts out. We get by because we can't always accept every single patient that we would like to accept."
A gleaming new centre will help to attract specialists, but there's no disguising the fact that it is not as glamorous - or as lucrative - as general plastic and cosmetic surgery.
"It is actually hard physical work. You stand in a 38-degree theatre, with around 100 per cent humidity. You then put on a gown, and the gown has to be waterproof because you don't want blood getting through to you. You then stand under very hot lights, you have a mask in front of you which means you rebreathe your superheated air, and you physically work.
"You do that for eight to 10 hours. It's miserable - and there are a lot of people who actually just refuse to step into the room, let alone actually go in and work. And yet, somehow we have to attract people who can come in and do that sort of thing," says Mr Wong She.
The Auckland Medical School-trained surgeon says his social conscience keeps him working his 100-hour weeks. Half that time is spent doing the administrative work that comes with running a hospital unit.
"I certainly know that if I'd been born in any country other than New Zealand, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you."
Mr Wong She knows he can earn up to four times his salary working overseas as a plastic surgeon.
"What attracted me to medicine in the first place was helping people. It was the combination of art and science - the art and technical aspects of surgery along with the technical aspects of putting it all together ... It all came together for me in burns."
British-trained Amber Moazzam was drawn to Middlemore 2 1/2 years ago by a medical school buddy. At the time, there was talk of starting a National Burn Centre.
He has done "thousands" of operations, but one particular case sticks out in his mind - a New Zealander he treated while in Britain.
The man was in a motorbike accident, with petrol burns to 75 per cent of his body.
"His whole scalp was burned off, leaving exposed bone. His whole face was burned off including his nose, ears and part of the leg. Although he had a lot of mutilating injuries - he had to have an amputation - he still managed to keep a positive outlook on life."
He last heard that his former patient was doing well. That, and the complexity of burns treatment, keeps him at it.
"There is constant struggle, there are new problems that patients keep on coming back with - skin grafts that we use become disfigured - and you have to use your ingenuity to try and improve it. It is challenging work, that's why it's so interesting."
