The Bombay City Eye Institute (BCEI), which has developed into one of the leading ophthalmological centres in Western India during the past decade, is now planning to spread its wings to other cities including Akola, Rajkot and Bhuj.

BCEI chief executive Dr Kulin Kothari told pharmabiz.com in an exclusive interview this week that satellite centres of the Institute had already started functioning in Akola in the past six months. The facility in Vashi (Navi Mumbai) would be fully operational in about three months, while discussions were going on a similar establishment in the Vasai-Virar belt, he added.

The BCEI was set up in 1992 on a modest scale in South Mumbai, but has now acquired capabilities to handle most ophthalmic conditions including a variety of disorders of the retina. "We do a fair amount of work in retina surgery," Dr Kothari said.

The Institute now employs about 17 full time eye surgeons and an equal number on an honorary basis, and they perform something like 3,000 operations each year. A majority of these are cataract cases, which are treated by "phaco-emulsification".

This is a relatively recent technique in which the affected lens is pulverized into tiny bits and removed from the eye, using a special set of instruments. In expert hands, the procedure could take as little as 45 minutes, and the patient can be allowed to leave the hospital within a few hours.

The Institute also organizes a number of training courses in phaco-emulsification, intra-ocular lens implantation, and other sophisticated procedures in eye surgery. All this is accomplished within a space of just 3,000 to 4,000 square feet.

But Dr Kothari said the Akola centre which would function within the premises of the existing Damani Eye Hospital, would occupy as much as 15,000 sq. ft. Most of the other centres would involve an investment of about Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 crore each, he said but declined to explain the precise mechanism of raising these funds.