The Federal Neuro-psychiatric Hospital Yaba has partnered with Gift Health Plus INC., to offer free eye care services, to reduce blindness and improve vision for underserved Yaba community in Lagos State.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the outreach, which took place on Monday at the hospital’s premise, provided services including eye tests, screenings and distribution of recommended medicated glasses.
Speaking at the event, the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Olugbenga Owoeye, said the initiative was part of the hospital’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), aimed at giving back to the community where it operated.
Owoeye reiterated that the initiative, which had become an annual event, provided Yaba residents, including staff of the hospital and patients, with free eye tests, recommended eye glasses and treatment for various eye ailments.
According to him, the hospital in conjunction with Gift Health Plus Incorporated, put resources together to provide the services.
He, therefore, encouraged staff of the hospital, its patients and Yaba community, to seize the opportunity to check their eye health.
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He said that those identified with defects that could not be handled there, would be referred to their sister hospitals for further treatment.
” We observed that a lot of people find it difficult to read and they cannot afford medicated glasses.
“So, because of transportation costs, some cannot even travel from their homes to hospitals where they can access care.
“In the course of our occupational therapy building in the hospital, our patients are into various arts and crafts.
“Some that are into tailoring cannot put needles into the machine. Some are into computer and they cannot read on it because of sight issues.
“As a result of this, we decide to put this outreach to assist them in caring for their eyes because prevention is far better and cheaper than cure,” Owoeye said.
Speaking, the Deputy Director Nursing Services of the hospital, Mrs Alonge Kehinde, said the idea was to reduce the number of visually impaired people in the community.
Kehinde, also the Head of Department, Nursing, described the initiative as a laudable gesture that benefited not only the patients and staff of the hospital, but the entire Yaba community.
She advised that people should take advantage of the opportunity.
“Many people are just walking, they don’t know the quality of the eyes they have.
“We have so many people with cataract, glaucoma and other eye defects, some can’t read without glasses.
“So, people should always explore this kind of opportunity once it comes, and even if it doesn’t come regularly, they should go to government hospitals that offer such services at less cost to access care.
“This is because it’s important to care for the eye in order to prevent blindness,” Kehinde said.
The consulting Optometrist at the event, Dr Chukwuemeka Achimole, urged Nigerians to take their eye health very serious by going for routine check every year.
Achimole, who described the eye as the window to the body, advised that anyone who had issues with the eye should visit a health facility where the eye would be properly cared for, saying that the eye was a very delicate part of the body.
According to him, early detection is key.
He noted that many cases, if detected early, may be prevented from escalating to cataract or glaucoma.
“I’m here to screen patients to see if they have any pathological or refractive condition.
“If it’s a refractive condition, we’ll take care of their sight issues here, but if it’s a pathological issue that we cannot handle here, we refer them to the nearest hospital for further treatment.
“Talking about cataract and glaucoma, the cataract is more like an ageing factor causative, except that of traumatic cataract.
“Then for glaucoma, it’s something we cannot just discover or detect on the road like this.
“The patient has to go to the clinic for them to detect if it’s glaucoma or not.
“If the individual actually has glaucoma, there’s what we call management process/treatment,” he said.
The Director, Gift Health Plus, Mr Chika Achibiri, said the main goal of the non-profit organisation was to provide succour and healthcare services to the most vulnerable citizens in the society.
Achibiri emphasised the crucial role the eye played in the wellbeing of the body, advising Nigerians to take proper care of their eyes.
He said, “We majorly do medical missions in the prisons, communities, churches and some other government facilities.
“These are where we find people that don’t have real access to medicare.
“For this outreach, we are providing free eye care services.
“Most of the time, the medications we use and the things we use are donations from donor bodies, majorly in the U.S.
“There’s an old man the doctors just checked here.
“As they finished with him and I asked if they gave him glasses, they said that his eyes were already damaged and there was nothing that could be done.
“So if somebody captures such case on time, maybe it would have been remedied,” Achibiri said.
A 65-year-old man and a beneficiary, Mr Bamidele Ogba, lamented that he could not see with his right eye, saying that he only saw with the left one.
According to him, he has done cataract surgery on the left eye, and as a result, he currently uses it to see, but due to financial incapability, he had yet to go for surgery for the right eye.
“So, immediately I heard about this programme, I decided to take advantage of it to know if anything could be done to my right eye.
“Fortunately, they advised that I should go to a hospital, promising to follow-up with my treatment,” he said.
(NAN)
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