The Department of Ophthalmology at Government Rajaji Hospital here has been given a complete makeover to make people prefer it to private clinics and hospitals. The department was upgraded recently with funds accumulated from various sources, including the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme, said P. Thyagarajan, Head, Department of Ophthalmology.
The operation theatres had been refurbished with quality flooring. World-class screening and sterilisation equipment and modern refraction machines such as surgical microscope, Fundus Camera and Non-contact Tonometer, used to measure the pressure inside eyes, had been procured at a cost of about Rs.40 lakh.
In a bid to facilitate better teaching-learning process, the department had integrated the state-of-the-art smart board, a facility that would transform an ordinary classroom into an effective interactive learning environment.
Apart from this facility, the department also had a closed circuit TV installed for the students to watch live relay of surgeries with the assistance of the operating microscope, said Dr. Thyagarajan.
The department which was the referral point for all government headquarter hospitals and medical college hospitals in the southern districts catered to around 150 patients every day, he added.
According to doctors at the GRH, the department receives patients with multi-speciality complications. Surgeries for lid repair, retinal correction, glaucoma and squint correction are performed in the department under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.
Nearly 150 cataract operations were done free of cost under the District Blindness Control Society Programme every day, they said.
“We are also conducting awareness programmes on eye donation and various kinds of diseases such as glaucoma that could lead to loss of vision,” said Dr. Chandrashekar, Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology.
