–in various aspects of diabetic eye care

ORBIS International, a foreign Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) that provides eye-care training, has trained local health professionals during a hospital-based training programme at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) from May 28 to June 1.
Over the five days, the NGO worked closely with the Guyana Diabetic Retinopathy Programme to train ophthalmologists, nurses and biomedical technicians.

According to the GPHC’s ophthalmology department, the Orbis team was divided into three faculties to perform the training programme.
The first faculty included Retinal Specialist, Dr. Rosalind Stevens who trained two local ophthalmologists, Dr. Madeline Garcia Gali and Dr. Dharmacharya Ramkarak, to do laser treatment for diabetic retinopathy.

Dr. Stevens also conducted a Continuing Medical Education (CME) session for 42 general physicians.
In Faculty Two, Peruvian Ophthalmic Nurse of the Flying Eye Hospital, Nurse Elisa Urruchi conducted two workshops for nurses in the area of infection control.

This brings to seven the number of local ophthalmologists to have been trained to perform Diabetic Eye Lasers at the GPHC in the last two years.
Over the past two years, Orbis International has been collaborating with the GPHC to train nurses in various aspects of patient-care for eye patients, especially with regards to diabetes and the eye.

Training programmes offered by the NGO have evolved over the years, as evidenced in Faculty Three, which was spearheaded by Biomedical Engineer, Mr James Lester of the USA.
He guided GPHC’s biomedical staff to care, maintain and troubleshoot ophthalmic instruments.

The Guyana Diabetic Retinopathy Programme is a multi-stakeholder initiative between the Ministry of Public Health and the World Diabetes Foundation to create a structured screening programme to guide the screening of persons with diabetes for eye complications, and to provide free laser treatment to those patients who need it.

Under the leadership of Dr. Shailendra Sugrim, the GPHC has established a screening centre, where persons with diabetes can walk in off the road and have their eyes checked for diabetes-related retinopathy complications that can cause bleeding into the eyes and eventually lead to permanent blindness.

Doctors usually advise that early screening can detect initial stages of the disease, so patients can be given laser treatment before the disease gets worse.
Patients can visit the Diabetic Eye Centre at the GPHC, or they can call 227-5519 to make an appointment.

The Diabetic Eye Centre had a presence at the just-concluded Health Expo, where at least 24 patients were given the opportunity to have their eyes checked for eye complications.