The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Private organisations chip in with community eye care

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Monday, Jul 07, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Private organisations chip in with community eye care

K.V. Prasad

A substantial share of spending on eye care is being met by private organisations through their community eye care or outreach programmes. They have their own programmes and are also involved in those of the Government.

“One-fourth of the world’s population of blind live in India and over 80 per cent of the blind and visually impaired live in the rural areas,” says Managing Trustee of Sankara Eye Centre R.V. Ramani.

“Non-availability of quality eye care, non-affordability and lack of adequate knowledge are the various factors that add to the malady,” he says. “In such a scenario, the solution lies in providing community eye care. Community eye care can be defined as providing high quality, cost effective, readily available eye care at the door step of rural India”.

The Sankara Eye Care Institutions now perform around 400 free eye surgeries every day to the “poorest of the poor”, he says.

Arvind Eye Hospital, another institution involved in community eye care for decades, says its Coimbatore institution performs around 25,000 cataract surgeries a year. Paediatric surgeries are around 500 and this includes those for removing cataract and correcting squint.

Patients identified through camps need not pay anything for consultation, surgery, accommodation, food and transport. For low-income group patients coming directly, the cataract surgery is free and they need to pay Rs.500 for the intraocular lens.

As for children, squint and cataract surgeries and also hospital accommodation are free. Payment is only for medicines and suture.

K.G. Eye Hospital performs 4,200 surgeries a year. It has done 98,000 cases over the last 12 years, says its Chairman G. Bakthavathsalam. “Power bills and transportation cost has risen by 100 per cent during these years. But, treatment is still free of cost.”

A lot of surgeries are performed under a Government initiative to eliminate preventable blindness. The District Blindness Control Society had organised 43,000 cataract surgeries through Government and private hospitals last year. The private hospitals are given subsidy. As many as 11,525 persons have undergone surgeries so far this year. District Collector V. Palanikumar handed over Rs.45.52 lakh subsidy to 10 private hospitals for performing the surgeries.

Cross subsidisation

Community eyecare sustains on cross-subsidisation. Charges are collected from those who can pay. These, in turn, become contributions for free surgery for the poor.

Dr. Ramani says the Sankara Eye Care Institutions perform close to one lakh free eye surgeries every year. “These non-paying patients constitute 80 per cent of the beneficiaries of our Institution. The other 20 per cent of the paying patients belong to middle income, upper middle income and affluent families and they [help] cross subsidise the free services, apart from receiving an international quality eye care for themselves,” he says. Aravind Eye Hospital says 75 per cent of its patients get free treatment and 25 per cent constitute the paying section.

For paying patients, the cost of cataract surgery in community eyecare begins at Rs.4000. The charge increases with the type of intraocular lens implanted in the patient’s eyes. The cost of drugs is around Rs. 750 and investigations around Rs. 500. Community eye care plays a key role in eliminating these costs for the poor. “The prices of some of the medications and consumables have started going up steadily. The impact will be felt in the near future,” Dr. Ramani warns.

Aravind Eye Hospital says the rise in fuel cost has, in turn, increased the expenses on free transportation of the poor patients from the villages to the base hospital and back.

A manager at the hospital says that on an average, its vehicles travel 100 km to 300 km every day to transport the patients from the villages. Despite providing free service, the vehicle tax paid by the hospital is the same as the one for any other commercial vehicle. The electricity tariff for the hospital is also the same as the industrial tariff.

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