Rs 2.77 billion to be spent on blindness prevention programme

The Ministry of Health, Government of Pakistan is going to upgrade the eye departments of Centres of Excellence (COE), Tertiary Teaching Hospitals (TTH), District Headquarter (DHQ) Hospitals and Tehsil Headquarter (THQ) hospitals in the country by 2010 under the National Programmes for Prevention and Control of Blindness (PCB) with a cost of Rs 2.77 billion, an official source told PPI here on Sunday.
Requesting anonymity, he said the eye departments at DHQ Hospitals Mardan, Kohat and Lower Dir, Shangla and Hangu have been already been supplied ophthalmic equipment in NWFP province, whereas the eye department of PIMS Islamabad were Centre of Excellence (COE). He said DHQ Hospitals in Chakwal, Gujranwala, Khushab, Attack, Okara and Kasur districts in Punjab had been upgraded.
He said the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Blindness is upgrading the eye departments of Nawabshah, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar (Mithi) and Jacobabad in the province of Sindh.
He said the eye departments of DHQ Hospitals Bolan, Qilla Saifullah, Gawadar and Qalat will be upgraded in Balochistan very soon.
The source further said the up-gradation would lead to early detection of causes and treatment of blindness such as cataract, corneal scaring, low vision, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and other eye diseases, which may lead to blindness in all ages. The facility of early diagnosis and management would thus be available at the doorsteps.
Besides, he said that the other important components of the programme include training in primary eye care of existing and newly recruited health personnel, effective management, and advocacy.
He further said formation of the national/provincial committees, development of HMIS, strengthening of research capacity and public private partnership will be other major focuses.
The National Programmes for Prevention and Control of Blindness (PCB) has targeted to achieve goals like restoration of sight to two million population, half will be the women, strengthening and up-gradation of eye departments at seven) centres of COE, strengthening and up-gradation of eye departments.
He said the programme is focusing to develop sub-specialities in the field of Ophthalmology (Pediatric ophthalmology, Vitreo-retinal disease and Glaucoma) including training of 100 community ophthalmologists and 600 midlevel eye care personnel, which available throughout the country, he added.
Responding to a question, he said the national programme is expected to generate job opportunities for over 2,700 health care personnel of required categories. He said the ministry of health has prioritised the blindness as one of the major causes of disability. The government of Pakistan has included blindness in the non-communicable portion of the 10th national development plan adding that his ministry also has prioritised blindness as one of the major causes of disability.
He said that Pakistan is signatory to Vision 2020, "The Right to Sight," a global initiative of WHO and International Agency for Prevention of Blindness, IAPB to eradicate preventable blindness from the world and Pakistan is the first country in EMR who has responded to this initiative by making plan and allocating substantial money to this as well.