EHA

Reaching the Visually Challenged

The magnitude of the burden of blindness continues to remain high in the country.  Many factors contribute to this situation and one of those factors is the inequity of eye services in the country. Most of the eye surgeons are located in the cities while it is known that 70% of the population is in the rural parts of the country. Many people in the remote and not-so remote villages do not have access to eye services for a variety of reasons and so are not able to be taken care of and relieved of their eye problems. So reaching out to those living in the hinterland is infact a matter of choice. EHA is committed to serving the poor and marginalized in north and northeast India. During the past year, eye care was delivered by 14 of the 20 hospitals. This was done through hospital-based services that include out-patient consultations and surgeries, screening camps in the villages and the screening of school children. EHA provides eye care to the surrounding communities through a team of dedicated staff using modern equipment.  The personnel include trained and qualified eye surgeons along with a team of ophthalmic technicians, optometrists and operation theatre nurses.

Highlight of the Year 2009

The eye services increased phenomenally during the year. There has been a steady growth over the past three years and the year under reporting was no exception.  The outpatients increased by 8% to more than 1.09 lakhs. More than 15,000 major eye surgeries were done of which 14,911 were cataract operations and a total of 14,802 IOLs were inserted (99.3% usage). Two of the units had 100% IOL usage.

Training
A project cycle management (PCM) workshop was conducted in conjunction with CBM in November 2008. The duration of the workshop was for three days with CBM resource persons. The workshop was attended by all the eye surgeons of EHA along with community health leaders of the hospital and the Disaster Mitigation unit of EHA. The goal of the workshop was to acquaint and familiarize EHA personnel with the detailed process of developing a project proposal and its management and evaluation.  The future of all EHA and CBM partnerships will be in the form of projects in a 3-5 year cycle and it was hoped that the various categories of personnel in EHA would become well-versed with PCM.

There were several other training programs that were attended by EHA staff. Champa Hospital sent Mr. Shantanu (their eye technician) for training in setting up an optical shop. From Robertsganj, Mr. Santosh (the technician) went for low vision training.  In addition Dr. Subodh Rath (the project director of the eye services) attended a course in flouroscein angiography and ultrasonography. Dr. Jude Simmons completed a 2-month course in glaucoma in the Aravind group of hospitals.

Formal Training-The DNB Course
The Jiwan Jyoti Christian Hospital has a huge volume of eye work and has gradually increased its infrastructure (buildings and equipment) in a bid to get ready for recognition as a centre for the DNB (Diplomate in National Boards) in ophthalmology. The inspection for the centre was completed in July 2009 and it is hoped that recognition for the DNB will be given soon.

New Directions
In an effort to address the disabilities in the communities around EHA hospitals, we plan to have an expanded program which deals not only with visual disability but with orthopedic and other wise challenged persons both children and adults. The project is planned as a five-year proposal that will involve training of new personnel and setting up systems to monitor and evaluate the activities that are planned. Currently this new expanded program is planned at ten locations in EHA. It is hoped that funding will be gained in 2010 with the help of CBM, Germany.

EHA gratefully acknowledges the generous help given by CBM, Germany for equipment, training of eye personnel, and for help in running the clinical services. There are many donors in the UK who support the community eye programme and the Duncan hospital. We are also grateful to the Veta Bailey Trust (UK) for their continued support for the CME program.