Nairobi County is set to open its first public eye hospital catering for patients with eye problems from this month.
The Mama Lucy Eye Hospital in Umoja 2 Annex is currently offering free surgical and medical eye services until Friday, 03 November. The hospital will offer surgery, lens replacement and treatment for eye problems.
“This facility will be seeing patients with purely eye problems, treat medically all eye cases, cataract surgery of eye related complications, offer and replace eye lenses to patients who will require them” said Mama Lucy Hospital CEO, Martin Alfred Wekesa Wafula. “We will also be able to do Intraocular and stereol injections, replacement of eye lenses at the retina.”
He noted that the ongoing eye camp, which started on Monday, 30 October, has already seen over 1,500 patients, successfully completed 100 surgeries and issued 1,500 spectacles to all vision impaired patients.
“For the first two days we have had this free eye medical camp, we have registered about 1,500 patients, given them spectacles, successfully done 100 surgeries and additionally provided medication” said the CEO
The eye clinic has seven ophthalmologists, two eye lens specialists and will also serve as a training center for eye care and treatment specialists.
It is estimated there are more than 328,000 blind people in Kenya, with another 750,000 visually impaired. Cataract is the largest cause of avoidable blindness in the country, making up 43% of all cases of blindness.
Most patients in low-resource settings in Kenya are unable to afford specialised eye treatment or seek treatment when it is too late making it difficult to restore or save their sight.
By offering the establishment of the eye care and treatment facility, the county seeks to alleviate the burden of cataracts on individuals and improve their overall well-being.