The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Sankara Eye Hospital to be opened today

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Sunday, Mar 09, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Sankara Eye Hospital to be opened today

Staff Reporter

It is located on Airport-Whitefield Road
Another unit to be set up in Shimoga

Bangalore: Their unique management model of harnessing corporate and individual philanthropy to achieve their goal of community eye care has led to the establishment of five state-of-the-art hospitals in South India, conducting 1,500 free eye surgeries a day.

Now, Sankara Eye Care Institutions will make their mark in Bangalore with a 225-bed Sankara Eye Hospital on the Airport-Whitefield Road, which will be inaugurated on Sunday.

R.V. Ramani, founder and managing trustee of Sankara Eye Care Institutions, said the hospital aims to conduct 25,000 free eye surgeries every year.

The hospital will have a cataract and IOL clinic, glaucoma and retina services, paediatric ophthalmology, Lasik laser centre, a cornea clinic and eye bank. “There is an enormous need for comprehensive and accessible eye care in India. A fourth of the world’s visually impaired people live in India, of which 15 million are blind. And four million cases of new cataract cases are added every year,” said Dr. Ramani.

The 25-room speciality eye care division of Sankara Eye Hospital will finance the 200-bed community eye care division where free treatment and surgeries will be offered. “We expect to reach this goal of self-sufficiency within three to five years,” he said.

Until then, recurring costs would be met through contributions from partners in service, he added.

The community division was set up by the Infosys Foundation.

As part of its rural outreach programme, the hospital would conduct eye screening camps in Bangalore, Bangalore Rural, Mandya, Hassan, Mysore, Kolar, Tumkur and Chamarajnagar districts. Transport to the hospital, accommodation, food and surgery would be arranged, free of cost, for those identified as needing treatment, Dr. Ramani said.

An eye hospital would be established in Shimoga by September, which would cater to the districts of Northern Karnataka, he said.

The institute planned to set up 20 hospitals throughout the country to realise its mission of “vision 20/20 by the year 2020,” he added.

Sanakara Eye Hospital’s present network includes hospitals in Coimbatore, Krishnan Koil, Guntur, Pammal and Silvassa.

The inauguration will take place at 10.30 a.m. Chief Secretary Sudhakar Rao will be chief guest and S. Gopalakrishnan, Managing Director and CEO of Infosys, will deliver the keynote address.

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