Infrastructure work on the $140M National Ophthalmology Centre in Berbice is complete and installation of some equipment has started in order for operations to begin next month.

The Government Information Agency (GINA) said too specialist staff that will man the centre have also been arriving from Cuba and are assisting with the installation of equipment. “We are looking forward to the ophthalmology centre coming on stream. It will lift the eye-care programme in Guyana. The Ministry of Health intends to make eye-care a primary health care initiative,” Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy said.

Patients suffering from corrective refractive error, cataract, glaucoma, retinopathy, retina detachment and other eye ailments and defects would be treated at the centre, the first one of its kind in the Caribbean.

According to GINA one of the centre’s long-term goals is to conduct eye transplants. Ramsammy said currently eye-care is being dealt with at the tertiary level where services are only available at the Georgetown hospital and the New Amsterdam Hospital. “Eye-care was never present in the family health care system. We have developed continuity of services; from the health post to the National Referral Hospital in Georgetown and now to the National Ophthalmology Centre at Port Mourant. People will be able to access eye-care at all levels of the health care system,” he added.

According to GINA teachers will be trained to use optical charts as screening tools to help identify children who may be suffering from impaired vision and may need glasses or contact lenses.

Health personnel at health posts and health centres will also be trained to assist persons to get treated early before complete loss of vision. “Additionally there are people who may develop diseases of the eye that are far more serious and cannot be corrected by merely wearing glasses.

They may sometimes need surgery, for example, for cataract, glaucoma or retina detachment” which the centre will be able to diagnose and treat the minister said. He said too the centre will also make use of micro-incisions for  treating some of the conditions will allow some patients to be discharged the same day as they undergo the treatment as such incisions heal faster.

The Centre was built under a Guyana/Cuba health sector agreement sealed in early 2006. It is expected that patients from neighbouring countries will also seek treatment there.