Three organisations have come together to improve cataract surgical rate in Sub-Sahasran Africa (SSA), where it is 200 to 400 surgeries for a million population per year against the desired level of 2000 to 3000. Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology (LAICO), Madurai; Dana Centre for Preventive Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins University, and Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the funding agency, have come together to enhance cataract surgical rates with a focus on efficiency, quality and reaching the poor.
Explaining the entrepreneurial approach to increasing access to cataract surgical services in SSA, R. D. Thulasiraj, Executive Director, LAICO, said on Tuesday that the partnership had identified five hospitals in SSA for improving surgical rates. The key reasons for low level of surgical rates were inadequate infrastructure and human resources; dispersed populations with low density and lack of transportation; difficulty in obtaining supplies and sub-optimal post-operative visual outcomes, he said.
In the first phase, between 2013 and 2016, the project assisted the five hospitals in Zambia, Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia to perform an additional 22, 000 cataract surgeries per year with higher quality outcomes. The second phase commenced on April 21 with a strategic planning workshop at LAICO. Mr. Thulasiraj said that besides setting their goals and developing strategic plans, the chosen hospitals would also gain a deeper understanding of effective systems by studying the practices of Aravind Eye Care System.
