Sri Lanka : Support to Blindness Prevention

1. INFRASTRUCTURE/TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

The Ministry of Health has identified the limited number and inequitable location of existing eye clinics, particularly in the north and east, as a major constraint to providing comprehensive eye care coverage.

Whilst sufficient Ophthalmologists have been trained and are available to be posted to district hospitals, the hospitals have none of the basic equipment needed to perform eye surgery.

In the first phase of a five year strategy aimed at creating an additional 15 fully functional eye clinics, the MoH has asked IRIS to equip five hospitals located in the districts of:

• Nuwara Eliya: pop. 700,083
  
• Polonnaruwa: pop. 359,197
• Anuradhapura: pop. 746,466
• Monaragala: pop. 396,173
• Kalmunai/Ampara pop. 589,844

Each hospitals requires the following ophthalmic equipment:

• Operating Microscope
• Slit Lamp and Tonometer
• Retinoscope
• Ophthalmoscope
• Indirect Ophthalmoscope
• Bipolar Diathermy Cauterizing Kit
• A-Scan & Keratometer
• Surgical Instrument Sets (6)
• Autoclave Steriliz

In addition, IRIS has been asked to provide each clinic with intra-ocular lenses and sutures, on an annual basis, that will enable 200 people who are unable to pay the lowest required fee for cataract surgery (i.e. the cost of consumables) to have their sight restored. Equipping each eye clinic and providing medical supplies will cost $40,000.

IMPACT

Once ophthalmic equipment has been provided to the six hospitals, ophthalmologists will be required to meet the MoH target of performing a minimum 1,000 cataract surgeries per year. IRIS and the MoH will monitor the number of surgeries performed at each clinic monthly.

Therefore, by the end of the first 12-months of the program 5,000 people will have had their sight restored (25,000 people over a 5-year period). The social and economic impact on families with a member whose sight is restored will be assessed through the monitoring and evaluation program IRIS will undertake each year.