Vision 2020 Eye Health: Experts make case for eye treatment
NAN-HG-12
Eye
By Yashim Katurak Rebecca
Abuja, Oct. 13, 2016 (NAN) Dr Sewuese Bitto, Head, Department of Ophthalmology, Garki Hospital, Abuja, said Nigerians still carry the burden of financing eye treatment.
This, Bitto said, would hinder the country from achieving the “Vision 2020 Eye Health”.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday that eye health was still very expensive in Nigeria hence only those who had the financial means could access it.
Bitto was speaking on the sidelines of the celebration of this year’s “World Sight Day”, a day set aside annually to raise global attention on blindness and vision impairment.
Bitto, a Consultant Ophthalmologist, said that the non-inclusion of eye care in most health management organisations further hindered most of the populace from accessing eye care in the country.
The expert said that the Federal Government could only overcome the hurdle and achieve the vision if it owned the funding and financing of eye care provision in the country.
She also advised the federal government to ensure even distribution of specialists in the urban and rural areas across the country.
“Vision 2020 Eye Health can only be said to have been achieved when eye health is made available to everybody not at a high cost but almost free.
“Eye health in Nigeria is still very expensive. Currently it is not even a comprehensive part of the National Health Insurance Scheme.
“Presently, if you have to see a consultant ophthalmologist, you will need to pay out of your pocket; it is not covered by insurance in many of the health management organisations.
“Government needs to own funding and financing of healthcare so that it can be run properly. Right now, what we have is Nigerians carrying the burden of financing their eye care; government is doing nothing.
“There is also the need to ensure even distribution of specialists across the country. The rural areas should have consultant ophthalmologists just like the urban centres.
“We should not only be concentrated around the urban areas thereby making the rural populace who are even more than those in the urban areas at risk. These people often have more complications due to this.
“If we cannot have this kind of cover for our rural population then we have a problem,” Bitto said.
To achieve this, Bitto called for organisation of outreaches in the rural areas to make rural dwellers aware of the availability of eye care services and seek medical assistance.
She said that this solution was only a temporal one as the regulatory bodies and law makers needed to put in place laws that would ensure eye care was made available to every citizen.
According to Bitto, if this is put in place then we go into financing of healthcare because eye care is not cheap.
“Expensive equipment are used to determine the problems in the eye.
“This is so because the eye is a complex organ located in very sensitive part of the body; it requires huge funding from both the government and Non-Governmental Organisations,’’ she stressed.
Bitto said she remained hopeful that the government would find lasting solutions to the current problems faced in eye care in the country.
NAN reports that the theme for this year’s celebration is “Universal Eye Health”. (NAN)
KRY/EAL/MST
Edited by Ekemini Ladejobi/Muhammad Suleiman Tola