Dr Agarwal's Eye Hospital Ltd has allotted Rs 55 crore to set up a chain of ophthalmology centre in the districts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. While Rs 40 crore is for domestic foray, the Rs 15 crore is allocated for the tertiary facility at Mauritius which will be commissioned by May end. The funds for these facilities will be from internal accruals and through a State Bank of India loan.

With its facility in Mauritius, the five-decade-old ophthalmic major is the first eye hospital to go global, S Rajagopalan, CEO, Dr Agarwal's Eye Hospital Limited told Pharmabiz. This facility will cater to patients in the islands of the Indian Ocean which include Madagascar, Seychelles, Rodrigues, Reunion located on the east of Madagascar, besides south and eastern sides of Africa. There will be four permanent ophthalmic consultants with 10 visiting experts at the facility, he added.

Ending March 2008, there will be 25 eye hospitals under the umbrella of Dr Agarwal's Eye Hospital Limited in Tamil Nadu (Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Erode, Salem) and Andhra Pradesh (Chittor). Of the Rs 40 crore, Rs 3 crore was pumped in for a secondary care facility at Hosur opened by Union minister for State health and family welfare Panabaka Lakshmi. Located on the Bangalore Hosur Highway, the facility offers care in Glaucoma, Retinal and Macular degeneration, squint apart from cataract and refractive error. The key reason to open at Hosur was that the town with 28 lakh population has 8-10 ophthalmologists. Our facility will fill the gap in the primary and secondary care, informed Rajagopalan.

Each of the centres in the districts have installed Zeiss Operational Microscope, AMO laser, Fundas Lourence Angiography and Phaco equipments to facilitate advanced diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. There will also be a lab, pharmacy and optical centre.

"Our aim is to help to control blindness which has affected 18 million people in the country. There are only 5,000 ophthalmologists treating eye related disorders. There is a huge imbalance in terms of treatment required and care to be provided. Therefore, we are looking at increasing our presence across the districts by opening up dedicated facilities which can provide much of the care improving the accessibility and the affordability for patients. Of course, the refractory and vitreous retinal surgery will be carried out at the 50-year-old Chennai facility", stated Dr Amar Agarwal, joint managing director, Dr. Agarwal's Eye Hospital Limited.

For 2009, plans are to reach to open up centres in the districts of Karnataka and Goa.

The ophthalmic major which is the oldest facility in the private medical segment has 100 doctors on its Board. The facility at Hosur will have five permanent consultants supported by super specialty doctors and surgeons. The focus areas at these district facilities is early diagnosis of cataract and diabetic retinopathy which is on the rise, stated V Suresh, vice president, Dr Agarwal's Eye Hospital Limited.

The ophthalmic major is also known to have bagged several awards for cataract and refractive surgeries from the American Association of Ophthalmologists and the American Society for Cataract and Refractive Surgery. It is also known to have introduced a 0.7mm surgical procedure for cataract which has received raved reviews from international journals.