A CONCERTED effort is on the way to significantly reduce wait times in the eye care clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which unfortunately could lead to long-lasting 

and irreversible damage to patients.

 

This was revealed during the recent third Equipment Prospectus, an initiative of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to encourage the philanthropic spirit of Corporate Barbados, with the view of recommissioning the clinical suite of the Lion’s Caribbean Eye Care Centre. The QEH is a registered charity and all donations made are tax exempt.

 

With numbers being seen at the clinic reaching a record 26 161 last year, 903 of which were cataracts, Head of the Ophthalmology Department Dr. Trevor Drakes noted that even though more patients were seen, there is a significant increase in the number of persons awaiting care, which stands at 711. This includes 500 patients with cataracts.

 

“Sadly some patients lose vision, and this is irreversible, while waiting for surgery. This falls short of what our mandate is. The proposal here and the way forward is we need to recommission the Eye Theatre Suite. When The Lion’s Caribbean Eye Care Centre was built it was custom- made for ophthalmology. It had a clinical section and surgical. We have manage to recommission the clinical section. We are at the point where we are ready to recommission the surgical section.”’

 

This he noted, comes against the backdrop of 23 clinics being conducting in the eye clinic and the work which also extends to the Winston Scott polyclinic which is responsible for 11 schools’ eye clinics and two non-communicable disease eye clinics.

 

He explained that the procedures at the QEH take place in the main surgical suite of the hospital. “While not ideal, we have made the best use of it. The problem with having one theatre is this - in spite of the expertise we have and surgical capacity, consultants are only able to operate two days on a fortnightly basis. It has resulted in increased wait times – up to a year. The surgical output not in keeping with the potential that we have. So there has been an increase in the backlog.”

 

Noting that the equipment could be quite costly, he assured that they would produce significant benefits including increased capacity, increased operating time, an increase in the surgical output and a reduction in waiting time for surgery. He noted that there would be a potential for revenue generation.

 

“ The recommissioning of this suite will allow us to realise the vision and mission of Lion’s Club...It will have extra capacity and be able to fund and finance a lot of our inherent cost and therefore reduce the overall dependence on the hospital budget.”

 

Some of the equipment needed includes an operating microscope with comes with a price tag of up to USD $200 000, as well as a Constellation System, which will bring about shorter recovery times and better surgery outcomes.

 

Dr. David Callender said the eye care centre is poised to deliver first world ophthalmic care. He assured that a plan is being devised to tackle the backlog of cases by the end of the financial year.

 

He reiterated there is an urgent need for more theatre time, with two or three functional theatres to offer a full suite of services already in the clinic, while eliminating the need to go overseas and attracting regional and international patients to Barbados for eye care. (JH)