500 upazilas to get dedicated eye care
The government plans to provide dedicated outpatient, inpatient and operating theatre facilities for eye care at the 151-bed full-fledged hospitals under construction in every upazila across Bangladesh, State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr MA Muhit said on Tuesday.
He also said the government was finalising an integrated National Eye Care Plan, which targets around one million cataract operations, as part of a broader effort to expand eye-care services beyond major cities.
The planned facilities are expected to extend advanced eye-care services to around 500 upazilas, reducing the need for people in rural and remote areas to travel to district towns or Dhaka for treatment, Dr Muhit said.
He was speaking as the chief guest at the formal inauguration of the “WHO SPECS 2030” initiative at Hotel InterContinental in the capital on 18 August.
Outlining the government’s strategy to strengthen primary healthcare at the grassroots, the state minister said primary eye care would be made a compulsory component of the training of 100,000 health workers currently undergoing the government recruitment process.
The government also plans to integrate infrastructure at district hospitals to rapidly expand regular cataract surgery and refractive services in at least half of the country’s districts, he said.
Dr Muhit said the government had also undertaken a major project to modernise and expand the National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital (NIOH) and that the project would be implemented soon.
The government further plans to draw on the experience of NGOs operating in both the public and private sectors to showcase Bangladesh’s achievements in eye care globally.
He said the Health Ministry had been regularly coordinating with international and local organisations over the past six months to improve and expand eye-care services.
“With efforts at the highest level of government, Bangladesh had also secured a major commitment to host a global summit,” he said.
The government aims to bring about a landmark improvement in Bangladesh’s eye-care sector within the next three to four years, Dr Muhit said.
The planned expansion is part of the government’s broader effort to strengthen primary healthcare and make specialised services more accessible to people outside major urban centres.
