Mobile Eye Clinic
The mobile eye clinic vehicles are fully equipped with examination equipment including ophthalmoscope, retinoscope, autorefractor, slit lamp, tonometer, phoropter, vision chart screen and A-Scan.
This empowers the attending optometrist and assistants to prescribe spectacles, book for cataract surgery in our operating theatre and also refer to the on call ophthalmologist for any urgent treatment.
We also have reading glasses to give immediately and frames for prescription spectacles to be ordered.
Annual targets:
- Screen a minimum of 10000 people from the area for eye conditions; (Zithulele and Canzibe)
- Treat 8000 primary eye complaints;
- Fully assess refractive errors, and distribute a minimum of 4000 pairs of glasses;
- Screen formally for cataracts, and keep records of everyone who will require surgery immediately or at some later stage.
School screening
This programme screens learners for visual acuity, depth perception and refractive correction, and is conducted at schools. The aim is that no learner in the KSD and Nyandeni local municipalities is to be disadvantaged due to visual impairment.
We commenced this programme of screening school learners for refractive and medical problems in 2015, and it has enabled those learners who required spectacles, to obtain them without the need to visit a clinic. We expanded this programme to Nyandeni Municipality (Canzibe Hospital from January, 2018)
Annual targets:
- To screen 16 000 learners to identify any visual impairment and to arrange interventions where necessary, so that each child in the area has a maximum chance of excelling in their education.
- To prescribe and dispense spectacles where needed, as well as examine those who require any other treatment such as for squints , allergies or infections and see that this is carried out and followed up, with the educators supervision.
Cataract surgeries
The Grace Vision facility at Zithulele Hospital includes a specially designed surgery, office space and accommodation, where low-cost, high-volume yet highly efficient cataract surgeries are performed.
The technique we use, known as “Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery” (MSICS), enables our surgeons to perform a minimum of 20 cataract surgeries per day, per surgeon. This is significantly higher than South African norms and is well on the way to the “WHO 2020” target of the World Health Organisation.
Annual targets:
- To perform cataract surgery on every patient whose condition falls within the cataract surgery requirement, within 3 months of the diagnosis.