The people in Orissa suffer a lot due to lack of health related infrastructure in one hand and lack of super special services in the other hand. Especially in Orissa the problems related to eye care are many and as such varied. Due to lack of eye care services in Orissa 14.85 persons in every one thousand population are blind. But 80% of such blindness is preventable if adequate steps are taken or if the patient gets a chance for operation.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen in Orissa. Again the case is very serious when treated from the point of view of child. As child cannot complain like adult this make the cases very complicated. Again there is lack of medical facilities or trained manpower in Orissa to cater to the need of this special categories of patients. On this backdrop an one day training programme was organised for the doctors of the Dhenkanal district on the 30th August 2007. This was attended by more than 21 doctors. Inaugurating the function Mr. Sarangadhar Samal,Director, KEHRC welcomed the dignitaries present in the hall and also highlighted the achievements of KEHRC in the last few years. In his brief speech he informed the gatherings that KEHRC came to saw the light of the day because of the consistent endeavour put forth by NYSASDRI team in order to provide eye care to the needy people who are residing in the unreached areas. Keeping in view the vision and mission of KEHRC hospital has since then moved ahead and conducted no eye camps and out reached camps for the people. But he also in formed that this is just the beginning and lot more need to be done in this regard. In his own words “KEHRC is planning to open up fixed vision screening centre, free eye screening for school children in near future”. He also expected that this short of training programmes will build the capacity of the doctors and they will be trained to treat and understand the issues involved in the Paediatric ophthalmology.

Dr. Mihir Kothari one of the senior Paediatric consultant of Mumbai  put light on topic Paediatric ophthalmology in general practices. In his deliberation, he emphasized that most of the child in the age group of 0-16 suffer from the problem of refractive error, which can be detected easily if regular attempts are made. But due to lack of knowledge on such issues in general children suffer from low and in accurate vision and these results in low esteem and confidence. He said, “most of the children don’t usually complain. Because they feel it is natural.” This makes treatment difficult. But this eye care can be treated only through small provisions like reading glass. He went on to add that Paediatric ophthalmology require super special skills. But if we can make certain provisions like nutritious food and awareness this type of eye damaging can be prevented. Dr. R. Garhnayak, the CMO of KEHRC then narrated the audience how KEHRC supports poor people with out reach camps. He informed the audience that KEHRC has a special team that looks after such provisions. The teams select the doctors and other paramedics from KEHRC go to attend such camps. Where as minor cases are treated in the spot through medication and consultation the cataract cases are referred back to the hospital where the surgery is done.

KEHRC is proud to deliver services at the door steps of the poor. Continuing the discussion Prof. L. D. Mishra put his views on Ophthalmology services in Orissa. He said that 50 years back the eye care service in Orissa is in the most neglected sector. 50% of the eye complaints later were blind. Due to lack of knowledge and shortage of trained manpower the patients had no alternative rather to resort to luck. This gave an idea to the audience regarding the gravity of the situation. But he felt satisfaction that now no of eye care units have come up in Orissa itself. Following this presentation by Prof. Mishra doctors in the meeting hall interacted with the esteemed guests on the dias. Mr Sarangdhar Samal, Director NYSASDRI informed the audience that how from a small organization KEHRC has been developing as a model eye care unit in Orissa. It will be soon be in record book for being hospital which’s in a rented home and still could operate 5000 cataract cases in one single year. This is no mean achievement. Both NYSASDRI and KEHRC are seriously concerned about the preventable blindness that spoils human slife. He urged present doctors that kindly refer all those children with preventable eye problem just not to KEHRC but to any other hospital that can serve these children. He also said that currently no of eye care units are coming up in the urban and semi urban townships and this has ensured better services for people.

School Education Program :

This year Kalinga Eye Hospital has started one school education program, which is known as the Young Ambassador Program. In this program KEHRC will move to the different schools of Orissa and will aware the school children on eye care status, eye care tips and their responsibility for the society. This program has started in the month of August and till the end of September it has already covered 32 schools of Orissa.

Teachers Training Program :

During this quarter in the month of August, we have trained a total 60 number of schoolteachers of sadar block & gondia block for identification of primary eye problem in children.

Pediatric Eye Surgeries :

Like last year in December, this year Kalinga has able to conduct eight pediatric eye surgeries in its own base hospital. Dr Mihir Kothari of Mumbai did these surgeries & Dr. Susanta Kumar Jagadala of KEHRC has supported it. For the first time in the history of KEHRC, it has able to perform one eye surgery of an eleven-month baby.

Celebrated World Sight Day :

KEHRC has celebrated the World Sight Day (Vision For Children) on the 11th day of October 2007. on this day people got awareness on this day & eye care. Even school education program were conducted, in this program 3 schools were covered, and students were aware on the WSD, and their role in the society for eye care.

Proposed Kalinga Eye Hospital :

Started in 2002, & functioning out of two rented buildings it has already conducted 15000 cataract surgeries. Not only surgeries, we are also organizing 200 eye screening camps per year for the remote in accessible areas of the district. Also organizing school screening camps to identify eye problems in the school going children and distribute spectacles for the needy children free of cost. In addition to the hospital and outreach services, we provide training to the Anganwadi workers and local school teachers for screening of children as well as local people. The hospital is also planning to establish vision centre's to provide primary eye care and take care of refractive error problem at the community level KEHRC which is equipped with modern and advance equipments, well-trained surgeons, paramedics and support staff to deal with cataract and refractive error, currently functions out of two rented buildings. The main hospital building houses the OPD and OR. The ground floor has a reception and registration area and two rooms for temporary inpatient accommodation. The patient waiting area, screening room, examination room, refraction room and the OR are located on the first floor. The third floor has office space. The second building is across the road from the main hospital building and is used for inpatient accommodation - both preoperative and postoperative. The hospital has a dedicated team of people and availability of full-time ophthalmologist and support staff clearly indicates that the eye hospital has a good image in the community and people are willing to actively participate in and support the social cause.

Having performed 5000 surgeries in the rented building in a year, the hospital plans to establish its own eye hospital by the end of 2008. This facility will have 50 beds with provision for expansion so that additional sub-specialty such as Retina, Cornea, Glaucoma, Diabetic Retinopathy etc can be added later. The new facility will have improved OT facility, Library, conference hall and in-house pharmacy and optical shop. So it has purchased a good piece of land in Dakhinakali and has planned to complete the infrastructure by the end of 2008 and by the year 2010 the hospital will aim to become a tertiary care centre for central Orissa.

After the establishment of the new facility the hospital plans to start other subspecialty services in ophthalmology with an initial focus on childhood eye diseases and then branching into retina and glaucoma services. So KEHRC has already sent Dr S K Jagadala for one year training in Paediatric ophthalmology at LAICO Madurai. This is an advantage for Kalinga as the hospital is equipped to perform surgeries with latest technology and provide quality eye care.