– says Health Minister
MINISTER of Health, Dr Frank Anthony has said that over 5,000 persons have benefitted from the Ministry of Health’s Pilot Community Ophthalmology Programme.
Dr Anthony made this revelation in a recent interview with members of the media on the sidelines of an event where he noted that the ministry will continue to expand its current Ophthalmology programme across the country.
According to the health minister, they have been doing quite a lot of screening in interior regions and have been sending out mobile teams to do screenings. In this regard, he noted that those persons who would need surgery are then brought out for same and returned to their villages.
“So that programme has been working really well and I think a lot of people in the interior are very appreciative of the programme,” he said.
Further, he noted that in relation to the pilot programme in the interior communities, persons who have been trained would go into the areas with something like a backpack that contains the necessary lenses and equipment and they would be able to receive the lenses they require.
He explained, “In the backpack, they have lots of lenses and they have a very simple instrument that they can put on your eyes; it has two things like a ruler and it’s colour-coded so you close one eye and you pull it down to where you can see properly and then you do the same, close the other eye…”
With this instrument, the Minister said that within three to five minutes, people can receive spectacles that are appropriate for their eyes.
This project, he said, has been ongoing since last year with many people benefitting thus far. “I think right now, more than 5,000 persons have benefitted and this project is going to continue this year,” the Minister affirmed.
The Ministry of Health rolled out this programme early last year as one of several interventions to improve eye-care services across the country.
In March 2022, the Minister indicated they had been working with a group from Johns Hopkins University that piloted a “Snap-on” lens technology which he said at that time would have a great impact.
At that time, he indicated that the Ministry had ordered at least 3,500 spectacles and the programme would begin in very remote areas across the country.
