Introduction
Dedicated to the people of Sonepur & Boudh districts to provide quality eye care
Mahanadi Netra Chikitsalaya (MNC), the first hospital in Sonepur District in Orissa was launched in 2003. A “Comprehensive Eye-care Service Project”. has been developed on the basis of a partnership between LEPRA Society and Sight Savers International (SSI) in 2003. The project covers a population of Sonepur and Boudh districts 913,697 (Sonepur-5, 40,659, Boudh- 3, 73,038), of which 96.73% population resides in the rural areas (Data source: Census of India- 2001).
This is a crucial step forward in the LEPRA Society strategy to elevate health care standards in the region. The hospital staff strives to make a significant contribution to healthcare delivery through patient care and health education”.
Areas of Intervention : Leprosy, Tuberculosis & Malaria.
Services Offered
The services provided include refraction, detailed eye examination, medical treatment, and operations such as cataract surgery with an intraocular lens, glaucoma,, eyelid surgery, and lachrymal duct surgery. One of the key strategies, from the beginning, was to introduce availing services at a cost (both fully and partially) which continued to be the strategy of the project.
Considering the current poverty level of the area (72% bellow poverty line), the hospital is providing 80% of cataract surgery free of cost to the economically underprivileged sections and remaining 20% on payment basis.
MNC has a team of trained specialist ophthalmic nursing and para-medical staff. Our caring and nurturing staff is well equipped to handle the needs of the people who visit the hospital. Since its inception in 2003, the hospital has treated more than 6000 patients
Resources
Infrastructure: The hospital is housed in its own two storied building having a covered area of 5000 sq. ft.. MNC has accommodation for 30 beds, suitable surgical and therapeutic equipment are available for providing eye care. The hospital has a minibus for outreach activities and transportation of patients identified with cataract to the base hospital for surgical intervention.
Physicians/Staff
There are 30 full time/part time workers at the MNC hospital. These include one full time doctor, nurses, paramedical staff and non-clinical personnel. The physicians are well supported by a multitude of staff members such as nurses, refractionists and technicians who actively participate in the health care team
Work Times: The hospital works six days (Mon-Sat). Patients usually come at 9 a.m. and the work day ends at 5 p.m.
Food: Breakfast, lunch and dinner are also provided free of cost to the patients and their attendants. On an average food is provided to 30 numbers of people per day at MNC.
The broader activities were
Base Hospital services with OPD, IP ward, Lab facilities and surgery facilities and medical store etc.
The access to and demand for services at this hospital is gradually increasing and this will reduce the backlog of the target area and support in reducing the blindness problem. People from poorer sections and inaccessible areas are, now, accessing the eye-care services. This has helped in reducing the avoidable blindness problem and helped in improving the socio-economic conditions of the people in the area.
From beginning to end of September 2007, about 28273 new cases were attended to and 14113 cases received OPD services. The project has restored vision of 7249 persons through cataract surgeries with IOL and 50 persons with non-IOL cataract surgeries. Minor eye problems of 664 persons were corrected with minor surgical services. Refractive errors of 3342 persons were corrected with provision of spectacles by the base hospital.
Community Outreach Camp in the remote areas
Through 276 community-level outreach screening camps 20233 people benefited and out of them 14156 received minor curative services at the camp site; 4411 cases were referred to the hospital and 3346 received appropriate services.
Health Education
In order to sensitise and popularise preventive messages and services available in the area, 42 health education programmes for women groups, 38 programmes for school students and 69 audio-visual shows for general public were are conducted by the field workers. The World Sight Day was celebrated on 14th October each year in both the districts. One of the key strategies of the project was the introduction of availing services at a cost (both fully and partially) which continued to be the strategy of the project. The Project has been fairly successful in this aspect.
The project has already been evaluated by LVPEI, one of the premier Eye-Care Institutes of India. In their opinion, the MNC has a good set- up and provides quality surgery in the rural areas.
The project has developed networking with the community-based organisations and volunteers whereby cataract cases can be referred directly to base hospital for treatment.
School Screening and Refraction Programme
As a part of school screening activities, the technical team of the project visited 108 schools and screened 8996 school children out of which 2,011 children were provided spectacle services by prescription and spectacles. Further, 225 school teachers were trained on preliminary eye screening with a view to enabling them to conduct the same in their respective schools and refer problematic cases to the base hospital.
There is also a strong advocacy with the District Administration and District Health Official for right interventions by the project in eye care.
Strategy
- To provide eye-care services free of cost or at subsidised rates to poor and needy population
- Improve staff capacity and outreach activities in community and schools for more case referrals to increase the cataract surgical rate
- To promote the prevention of nutritional blindness, detection and correction of refractive errors and enhance awareness of eye health in the project area
- To organise the capacity building for health providers in addressing visual impairment and referral of more cases
- Increasing partnership with local NGOs and CBOs and philanthropists for outreach programmes
- To conduct regular screening camps in the village/communities in the project areas providing OPD services including treatment and prescription
- To provide spectacle provision for needy persons
- Community-level IEC to create adequate awareness in villages and outreach area
- Advocacy with health authorities
- To develop the capacity of the teachers to identify the students with refractive error
- To motivate the surgically curable blind to access services at the base hospital
- Marketing strategy - Training facilities and service facilities
- Monitoring and evaluation to ensure qualit
