The Lagos State Government has announced plans to establish a centre for ophthalmic specialty at one of its general hospitals, aiming to improve care for patients with eye conditions.
According to The PUNCH, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, made the announcement at the Africa Retina Society’s conference, themed “Upscaling Retinal Services in a Resource-Constrained Economy.”
The centre will provide world-class diagnostic, medical, surgical, and ophthalmic services in Lagos and Nigeria.
Abayomi said the centre would provide world-class diagnostic, medical, surgical and ophthalmic services in Lagos and Nigeria.
He stressed that the state would prioritise eye health, noting that the state was working on developing screening capacity of all its primary healthcare facilities to detect eye diseases early.
“The conditions that affect the eyes very much reflect the conditions of the community in which you live. HIV, for example, was a major problem in South Africa, and I certainly experienced the impact of HIV on our day-to-day medicine and practice.
“Here in Nigeria, we have other things. We have hypertension, diabetes, sickle cell, and lots of trauma. These are the kinds of things that we see in our clinics here in Lagos and in Nigeria.
“We need to be able to understand how these prevailing conditions really affect us,” he said.
The commissioner further said that efforts are ongoing to promote eye screening, especially in schools, starting with the training of teachers to detect students exhibiting challenges with their vision.
He added that the state would leverage social health insurance to screen, detect and treat eye diseases as patients present at health facilities.
The commissioner further said the state would strengthen public awareness and understanding on eye health, especially glaucoma and visual acuity.
Abayomi disclosed that the state through its Ministry of Health had forged a partnership with the Chagoury Group to develop a specialist eye hospital in Lagos to boost access to eye services.
He acknowledged that ophthalmology was equipment-intensive, stressing that the government would pay attention to that and human resources to enable practitioners to make appropriate diagnosis, and treatment to reverse medical tourism.
