KALINGA EYE HOSPITAL & RESEARCH CENTRE

FIXED SCREENING CENTRES

KEHRC (Kalinga Eye Hospital & Research Centre) is making its presence felt in the remote areas in Orissa through the leading eye care centre of Orissa started making its presence feel in the remote areas of Orissa through Fixed Screening Centres.

Presently one centre each at Bhuban and Parjang of Dhenkanal district is catering affordable ophthalmic care especially for poor and wage labourers. These centres cover a stipulated geographical area. A medical team consisting of a doctor, a paramedic, an ophthalmic assistant, and a counsellor are attending camps on a fixed date.

‘Kalinga Eye Hospital & Research Centre’ (KEHRC) is the only comprehensive and state of the art eye hospital in the central part of Orissa with all contemporary surgery equipments and eye care facilities. It provides free of cost services to the poor patients belong to below poverty line (BPL) families. It charges nominally to the patients of above poverty line.

KEHRC was established by National Youth Service Action and Social Development Research Institute (NYSASDRI) in 2002. Presently it functions as an autonomous unit. It’s office & hospital located at Dakhinakali road, Dhenkanal town. The international humanitarian organisation, Unite for Sight (UFS) is supporting NYSASDRI in eliminating preventable blindness, improving eye care infrastructure and concerned awareness in Orissa.

KEHRC is committed to change the eye care scenario in Orissa through expert ophthalmologist, co-staffs and upgrading all types of eye care facilities in its base hospital to become a referral centre of Orissa by the year 2009. In order to provide ophthalmic services to the rural and deprived sections, KEHRC organises outreach camps in different villages. Its current operational coverage is spread across 7 districts of Orissa viz. Dhenkanal, Anugul, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Sambalpur, Deogarh and Kendujhar.

135 million of the World’s populations are visually impaired. 85 million of them are sightless. But 80% of the blindness is due to cataract only and it is curable. In India this information is yet to be promoted by various Civil Society Organisations, individuals, and Mass Media. Orissa, one of the eastern most coastal states of India has very poor health care services even till this new millennium. There are health service infrastructures concentrates in coastal Orissa only. The people of central and western Orissa not have accessibility to these minimal infrastructures. Due to low level of income coupled with poverty, lack of awareness and accessibility to the services, sufferings of visually impaired and sightless people are persisting.