No fewer than 106 patients have received free surgeries for eye cataract in the just-concluded free medical outreach sponsored by Offa Descendants Union, UK, in Offa, Offa Local Government Area of Kwara.
The empowerment initiative tagged: “Sight and Vision Project’’ was inaugurated by the union in 2017 in collaboration with the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) and Offa General Hospital.
The Union’s President, Biodun Badmus told NAN that the beneficiaries, apart from the surgeries, were also offered free eye screening, blood pressure diagnosis, drugs and free eyeglasses.
He said that the 106 patients, who were operated at Offa General Hospital, were discovered among the 701 patients screened for cataract by the union’s medical expert during the programme that ended on Saturday.
Mr Badmus said the initiative was a product of an in-depth painstaking research of the medical analysis of the people of the community, especially as it affected eye-ailments and infections.
“Through an in-depth analysis of the medical background of the community, we discovered that something urgent needed to be done to improve the general health condition of our people.
“There is an urgent need to save them from losing their eye-sight prematurely through preventable and curable infections, ‘’ he said.
Badmus was happy that the initiative had been yielding results going by the positive feedback received from its beneficiaries.
According to him, 132 identified with refractive errors were provided with eyeglasses and 124 others given eye drop as treatment.
He said the union discovered that cataract infection was now on the increase when compared the 106 figure with 87 patients that did the surgery during the 2017 edition of the outreach.
A Senior Registrar in the Department of Ophthalmology, Offa General Hospital, Dr Abdulraheem Sheriff, who led the surgery team, urged the people to always get their eye checked for early diagnosis of infections.
He said the hospital’s collaboration was borne out of its desire to make healthcare delivery affordable and accessible to the people at the grassroots.
