200 cataract surgeries in nine days

Koforidua, May 17, GNA - Dr Obeng Apori, Medical Director of the Koforidua Regional Hospital, has appealed to Accra West Rotary Club and Rotary India to sponsor the training of some Ghanaian eye specialists in sutureless eye surgery and other modern methods of eye care in India for the benefit of the country.

He said such an arrangement would help reduce the incidence of avoidable blindness in the country and further promote the scientific and cultural relationship between Ghana and India.

Dr Apori made the appeal when the management of the Hospital briefed a group of journalists on the activities of three Indian Eye Specialists and four paramedical staff and their Ghanaian counterparts who were organizing a special eye care programme at the Koforidua Regional Hospital.

The programme is sponsored by Accra West Rotary Club, Rotary India and the Ghana Health Service.

The Head of the Eye Department of the Koforidua Regional Hospital, Dr James Addy said for the past nine days that the team had worked at the Hospital, the group had screen over 4,000 eye patients and conducted eye surgeries for 200 of the patients using the sutureless small incision eye surgery method.

He said the technology was less expensive, less stressful and the patients needed less time to recover than the traditional method. Dr Addy said some of the patients who benefited from the surgery came from other regions including Central, Western, Volta and the Greater Accra.

Dr Sanjay K. Gupta, one of the Indian Eye Specialist said talks were still going on between the Indian High Commission and the Ghanaian Ministry of Health on the possibility of training some Ghanaian Eye Specialists and paramedical staff in not only the small incision cataract surgery but also in other modern eye surgeries like cornea transplanting.