[*Note from HIFA moderator (NPW): This Spotlight discussion remains open for the next few days. Please email your contributions to: hifa@hifaforums.org www.hifa.org/cataract ]
Dear HIFA colleagues,
I’m responding to Q3: What is the availability and quality of cataract surgery?
Even though cataract surgery is commonly considered a simple, short procedure, it requires precise skills and quality perioperative (preoperative, intraoperative, postoperative) care, including management of health facility services (hygiene, sterilisation, operating room environment) and cataract surgical camps in rural and remote settings.
Quality care in cataract begins with access to reliable, updated, evidence-based information on prevention, seeking care from trained doctors and health personnel, timely diagnosis and treatment, perioperative care, which includes providing the health provider with information on co-existing health conditions, and receiving correct information about care after cataract surgery (which avoids many complications).
If quality control is not maintained, it can result in serious complications such as eye infection and blindness with major socio-economic consequences.
Best wishes
Dr. Meena Nathan Cherian, MBBS, MD (Anaesthesia)
(Former WHO Lead Emergency and Essential Surgical Care Program, Geneva, Switzerland).
Director, Global Health New Challenges: Geneva Foundation for Medical Education & Research, Switzerland. www.gfmer.ch/surgery/cancer.htm (NSA-WHO)
Senior Advisor Global Action International Society of Geriatric Oncology Permanent Committees - SIOG
Senior Advisor, International College of Surgeons-Global Affairs. https://icsglobal.org/ (NSA-WHO)
Adjunct Prof.The Chinese University of Hong Kong,Shenzhen,China. https://med.cuhk.edu.cn/en/teacher/371
WHO-HIFA Essential Health Services; mHEALTH-INNOVATE. www.hifa.org (NSA-WHO).
Geneva, Switzerland. +41 763837253(m); cherianm15@gmail.com
HIFA profile: Dr Meena Nathan Cherian was a professor of anaesthesiology from Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, India. She trained, worked, and taught in several countries, USA (Johns Hopkins Hospital), Southeast Asia and Africa. She worked at the World Health Organization Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, as the Emergency and Essential Surgical Care Program Lead where she created the ‘surgical care’ program resulting in the first World Health Assembly Resolution on ‘Emergency and Essential Surgical Care and Anaesthesia in the context of Universal Health Coverage’. Currently she works as the Director, Global Health New Challenges program, Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research, Geneva, Switzerland; Adjunct Prof. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China; Senior Advisor, Global Action, International Society of Geriatric Oncology, Switzerland; Member of the WHO-HIFA Working Group on Essential Health Services and COVID-19; and HIFA mHEALTH-INNOVATE Working Group. She is a member of the HIFA Steering Group. https://www.hifa.org/support/members/meena and Spotlight working group on Patient Safety and NCDs. cherianm15 AT gmail.com