The Arjun Waney Eye Centre which is L V Prasad Eye Institute’s secondary centre at Berhampur supported by The Savitri Waney Charitable Foundation is now offering low vision service. The centre which completed one year examined 10,843 patients in the out-patient services and performed 765 eye surgeries in 11 months.
Of these 31.8% of out-patients and 71.8% of surgeries were at no cost to the patient and almost 49.2% of the patients were women. The community screening program covered 14 villages in Ganjam district, including children of a residential school.
The Centre at Berhampur is equipped with the required medical equipment and well trained staff to deliver eye care services on a sustainable basis, to eliminate avoidable blindness in the region. The comprehensive services range from assessment and prescription of low vision devices such as magnifiers to help patients with low vision read again to social, educational, and vocational rehabilitation through training or re-training patients with low vision and blindness to the highest possible level of their functional ability.
Low Vision Rehabilitation is an integral part of the LVPEI’s pyramidal model of care delivery; the services are delivered at all levels across LVPEI’s network through its centre-based and community-based approach. Since their inception, the vision rehabilitation centres have successfully rehabilitated more than 156,576 people with low vision and blindness across all age groups and strata of the society.
When conventional treatments - medical or surgical - fail to prevent or restore vision loss, patients often experience vision impairment. These services work at empowering people with low vision and blindness. The pyramidal model of eye care network currently includes a Centre of Excellence in Hyderabad, 3 tertiary centres in Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada, 16 secondary and 141 Vision Centres that cover the remotest rural areas of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Karnataka.