Lockdown halted eye surgeries of 12k poor people

Bengaluru: Minto Eye Hospital, a government-run specialty hospital in Bengaluru, on Monday stated that the hospital had to abort cataract and other major surgeries during the complete lockdown period.

All routine or non-emergency surgeries that were scheduled to take place at the hospital between March to June were canceled. More than 12,000 poor people are likely to lose vision permanently in six months. Taking up the issue seriously, the director of the hospital Dr. Sujata Rathod wrote to the Department of Medical Education seeking permission to begin surgeries immediately. The superintendent of the hospital, local doctors, the head of the unit. agreed to resume the eye surgeries.

"We had to cancel all elective surgeries in the hospital when the lockdown was announced. We had many patients lined up for eye surgeries. Some of the patients were also admitted to the hospital. We will have to ask them to wait until the situation improves. The patients' surgeries cannot wait for too long, a doctor said.

In a letter, Dr. Sujata Rathod had requested the medial department to allow them to utilize the 100 beds which were reserved for Covid-19 cases at Minto Hospital as not a single case was referred to the hospital to date. "We have super-specialty therapy for both outpatients and inpatients at Minto. But all these facilities were stopped on March 23.

Since then, we have been giving teleconsultation advice to our patients. Later, we have started outpatient and emergency services after relaxations were announced," said Dr. M Venkatesh, president of National Instructors' Association (NOA) and Minto Hospital eye officer.