Butwal, Apr.1: Nepal Netrajyoti Sangh has the objective of   extending eye care services to all the districts in the Kingdom in the coming ten years.The Sangh has currently been extending eye care services in 36 districts across the country through its 13 eye hospitals and 27 eye care  centres including eye treatment extension services.

Established in 2035 B.S. on Guthi Sansthan land at Tripureshwar, Kathmandu, the Netrajyoti Sangh has now expanded its services to many places across the country from Jumla to Taplejung and Bitadi to Jhapa district.

Eye hospitals and eye care centres have become widespread in the country as a result of the promotion of awareness work carried out by the Netra Jyoti Sangh, central president of the Sangh Dr. Ram Prasad Pokharel said.

According to him, whereas people had to go to India or other countries for eye treatment in the past, Indians are now coming to Nepal for such treatment.

It is learnt that the Sangh has been spending Rs 120 million annually from internal and external sources on the treatment and care of eye patients.

The Ministry of Health has given recognition to the Sagarmatha Chaudhari Eye Hospital, Lumbini Rana Ambika Eye Hospital, Himalaya Eye Hospital and Geta Eye Hospital, all run by the Sangh as high level modern eye hospitals where all eye care services are available.

Among these, the Sagarmatha Chaudhari Eye Hospital, Lahan, is learnt to have provided eye care services to the maximum number of patients and established itself as the hospital serving the largest number of patients.

These eye hospitals which have been recogniSed as such by the health ministry can provide all kinds of eye treatment have been serving  people even areas in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and west bengal states of India Bordering Nepal. According to Dr. Pokharel, the sangh on the one hand faces the challenging task of making all institutions under it self-reliant while on the other it has to expand its services to areas not yet covered.

General secretary of the Sangh Dr. Sambhu Prasad Lakhe pointed out that resource constraints, lack of modern tools and equipment, the gradual reduction of assistance by donor agencies, the poor economic status of people, lack of subsidies and very low investment in eye care services from the government, lack of ophthalmologists and other trained manpower, donor interference in the affairs of the hospitals, managerial and administrative lacunae and lack of planning and project formulation were the challenges and difficulties facing the Sangh.

This year, the Sangh is learnt to have provided eye care services to a total of 640,051 persons through eye hospitals, district eye care centres and the community eye programme being run by the Sangh.

Out of these, 66,272 underwent cataract, corrective and other eye surgery. Intra-ocular lenses were also implanted on the eyes of 58,953 persons, it is learnt.

Compared to last year, the number of out-patients has increased by 0.63 per cent this year and that of persons undergoing eye operations by 19.88 per cent. Similarly, people with intra-ocular lenses have increased by 41.12 percent.

Meanwhile, when the Sangh examined the eyes of 5,508 children under five years of age from 3,885 households in 88 different villages across the Kingdom in connection with looking for possible ways of reducing blindness and child mortality caused by vitamin “A” deficiency, it was found that 153 children or 2.8 percent of the sample population were at risk of becoming blind in the near future due to the deficiency. According to world health organisation (WHO) categorization, villages or districts where diseases due to vitamin “a” deficiency exceed 0.5 per cent are classified as “Grave Health Hazard Areas”.

Similarly, the sangh conducted a study as part of its school health programme under which the eyes of 5,543 children from 69 different schools within Kathmandu Valley were examined.

The study found that 26 percent of the total sample population was suffering from one or the other eye disease while 4.8 percent were vitamin “ A” deficient.

It is further learnt that the Sangh has conducted a total of 57 eye relief camps in different parts of the country this year, benefiting 28,875 people.