Introduction
Nepal Government has sufficient health workers like Health Assistants, Mid-Wife, Staff Nurses and Doctors. The main problem of this time is ignorance and existing social taboos. Nepal Government runs health awareness programmes at villages through the district health office of the respective districts. Lack of roads is another bigger problem for reaching to the unreached.
Eye Care Facility was started long ago in Nepal seeing the needs of Eye Patients and with Increasing Eye Diseases. Bir Hospital in the capital city of Kathmandu was the pioneering eye service provider for Nepalese Citizen. Later Eye Care facility was shifted to Nepal Eye Hospital i.e. First Eye Hospital of Nepal. Later many Eye Hospitals and Eye Care Centres in each district of Nepal were Opened. Nepal Netra Jyoti Sangh and Nepal Eye Program Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology are the two major eye care monitoring bodies in Nepal. These two organizations run an eye care facility in different parts of the country.
Eye Care Facility is not monitored by Nepal Government itself. The Netra Jyoti Sangh takes the major Parts of Responsibility to provide eye care services around the nation.
The prevalence of Blindness in Nepal was pretty high in the past few decades. After the start of the Comprehensive eye care facility in different parts of the Nation, the Burden of Blindness has decreased to 0.39% from 0.84%.
Nepal has one of the best eye care facility in the world. Cost-Effective intraocular lens (IOL) designed by Dr Sanduk Ruit (Senior Ophthalmologists, Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology) and Fred Hollows has made cataract surgery easier. Many patients from neighbouring countries visit Nepal to find a cure for their eye problems. Nepal has a cost-effective and reliable comprehensive eye care facility. Major eye hospitals of Nepal like Tilganga Eye Hospital, Biratnagar Eye Hospital, Sagaramatha Eye Hospital, Himalaya Eye Hospital, Geta Eye Hospital, Lumbini Eye Institute and research centre etc. run the best eye care facility in Nepal.
The eye hospitals have been running their branches of Primary Eye Care Centres in the hilly and Himalayan districts where eye care facility was not accessible in the past. The Eye Care Centres are mostly run by a smaller Number of Staffs while Ophthalmic Assistant functions as the Incharge of the Primary Eye Care Centre. Eye Centres offer all the basic eye facility for Comprehensive Eye Examination. Troublesome and vision-threatening Diseases are Referred to higher centres/ Eye Hospitals so that Ophthalmologist would see the patient and treat them accordingly.
Nepal offers all kinds of eye surgery starting from Cosmetics to Surgery needed for Disease Conditions. LASIK Refractive Error Correction surgery is offered by the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology in the Capital City of Nepal at a very low cost relative to other foreign eye hospitals.
Like other Developing Nations, Nepal has a higher prevalence of cataract. The second leading cause of blindness in Nepal as shown by the 1981 blindness survey i.e. Trachoma, is eliminated from the country. The declaration for elimination and Validation was made By the “World Health Organization” on 21st May 2018. The Trachoma elimination was only possible due to the hard works that every eye care professional in Nepal do.
Other services and surgery offered by Eye Hospitals in Nepal to the eye diseases are Cataract Surgery with Modern Phacoemulsification Techniques, Glaucoma Medication and Surgery, Refractive Errors Identification and Treatment of Amblyopia in Schooling children, Glasses fitting through modern Ophthalmic Machinery, Correction of Presbyopia in Old People, Comprehensive Dilated Eye Exam for Eye diseases like Diabetic Retinopathy and Hypertensive Retinopathy and other retinal Diseases, Treatment of Lacrimal passage system, and Cornea Transplantation, LASIK Surgery, and medication for other multiple types of eye diseases.
