Federal Health Minister Muhammad Naseer Khan said on Tuesday the government had prepared a comprehensive programme to eradicate blindness as every individual had the right to sight. Inaugurating the Opthamology Department at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) here on Tuesday.
He said under the national programme for prevention and control of blindness, seven centres of excellence and 20 tertiary care hospitals would be set, besides establishing 105 eye care units at tehsil level. The minister said the programme would focus on 70 percent of low-income families to provide them with best medical facilities. Naseer said 5,000 healthcare workers would be trained to enhance the capacity building for countrywide eye care programmes.
He said blindness caused an estimated annual financial loss of Rs 50 billion to national economy because those who suffered blindness could not properly use their abilities to their full potential. The minister said 45 million people were blind world-wide and in Pakistan 1.5 million people were suffering from blindness, out of which two-thirds were women.
He said the government had allocated Rs 11.8 billion for health projects, and added maternal-child care programme would greatly help reduce disease rate, especially in remote areas. Naseer said mobile clinics had been made functional to provide free of cost biopsies and ultrasound facilities every where in the country.
Pims Executive Director Professor Dr Fazle Hadi said steps were being taken to improve the health facilities at the hospital and new medical equipment, acquired recently, would help better diagnose and treat the vision-related diseases.
Project Director of national programme for prevention of blindness, Dr Athar Saeed Dil, said the programme would focus on improving infrastructure and technology, developing human resource, ensuring effective management and advocacy, enhancing scope of research and facilitating public-private partnership in health sector.