Eye Checkup Camp on #WorldSightDay @IAPB1

15 October, Barhi (Hazaribag): LNJP Eye Hospital has observed World Sight Day by organizing a free eye checkup camp at Barhi, a sub-divisional township on GT road and about 15 km faraway from base hospital. There were 415 patients including cataract (115), refraction and with other eye problems got all necessary checkup/tests and services here in supervision of Mr. Karunanidhi (LNJPEH).

World Sight Day was enriched with a press conference in presence of Mr. Satish Girija (Secretary, NBJK), Dr. Jitendra Kumar (State Program Officer, Sightsavers) and Mr. Gandharv Gaurav (Program Director, LNJPEH). Mr. Satish Girija has presented a brief description of 11 years long journey of Loknayak Jai Prakash Eye Hospital established in 2005 with support of Sightsavers. There were 36234 OPDs and 7396 cataract surgeries by the hospital during 2015-16, out of which 60% cases were treated under sponsored or subsidized category, he mentioned.  Dr. Jitendra Kumar (Sightsavers) has expressed commitment to partnership with LNJPEH that is crucial for awareness among common people towards eye diseases and service availability. He announced about launching of a short term project with the hospital to ensure 1000 cataract operations & 500 power glasses free of cost for poor people up to March 2017. We will continue such initiative and planning to support Jharkhand government to setup eye care services at district headquarters as per the MoU signed recently, he said.

Mr. Gandharv Gaurav (LNJPEH) has thanked Sightsavers, World Diabetes Foundation, Aditya Birla Financial Services and all for supporting the eye hospital. He informed about an apparatus called Infinity for accuracy in Cataract treatment at the hospital and its eye care services on Diabetic Retinopathy and Glaucoma. We maintain operation protocol, ensure for 0% infection and provide services with ophthalmologists for 6 days in a week, Mr. Gaurav has pointed out before media people during the press conference.

Dr. Md. Ibrar (local supporter) has praised NBJK for organizing the eye camp at his place and appealed people to avail services. LNJPEH team of Dr. Alok, Annapurna Devi, Punam Devi, Yashoda Kumari, Vinod Swarnkar, Surendra Pandey, Vikrant Singh, Dinesh Kumar and others has made the eye camp a success.

#VisionTest for School Children @ActionVillageIn

16 September, Churchu: A vision check up camp was organized at Government Middle School of Khurandih village in Churchu block of Hazaribag district under Disability Rights program with support of AVI-BLF, UK. This was a preventive activity under the program to check growing number of children suffering from visual impairment.

There were 70 children appeared for vision test, 2 of them have been detected with 6/9 vision and referred to NBJK run LNJP Eye Hospital at Chouparan (Hazaribag). A team of Mr. Annu Kumar (District Coordinator, Hazaribag), Mr. Om Prakash Gupta (Block Coordinator), Mr. Sudip Kumar (MIS Coordinator) and Mrs. Bindu Devi (Field Worker) has contacted the school management and arranged all requisites for the vision check up camp.

To stop escalating eye problem among children is our objective and we will go at other schools in countryside to provide eye check up facility among students, Mr. Annu Kumar said after the camp.

#GlaucomaClinic at LNJP Eye Hospital @afaqs

12 July, Chouparan (Hazaribag): Many patients suffering from Glaucoma or Kala Motiya now find relief at Glaucoma Clinic established at Loknayak Jai Prakash Eye Hospital with support of Aditya Birla Financial Services. The clinic was started in March’16 and provides all related tests and treatment to common people at subsidized rate. Mr. Gandharv Gaurav (Director, LNJPEH) said that there are more than 100 patients who have been treated here successfully.

Glaucoma Clinic offers specialized care on 4 days (Tuesday to Friday) weekly in between 9 am-1 pm. Eye pressure damages optic nerve and hinders images from retina to brain, black spots come inside vision field and we become blind, he explained. Since the process is quite slow and painless, one may not notice the disease easily and if once visual loss occurs due to nerve damage, it is irreparable.

The symptoms include severe eye pain, blurred vision, squinting or blinking of eye, change in color of iris, headache, rainbow haloes around lights etc. and factors like age, family history and severe anemia add to the risk of Glaucoma, Mr. Gaurav has informed.

Since there is no charitable treatment of Glaucoma available at Chouparan and within radius of 100 km around, LNJPEH run Glaucoma Clinic is proving its worth for poor patients live in villages.

Appreciation to NBJK for Preventing #Blindness due to Diabetes @WorldDiabetesF

13 April, Denmark: World Diabetes Foundation, Denmark has expressed its deepest appreciation and admiration for the work by NBJK to prevent blindness due to diabetes in Jharkhand. In his letter to Mr. Satish Girija (Secretary, NBJK), Mr. Anders Dejgaard (Managing Director, WDF) has conveyed satisfaction over completion of the joint project from July 2013 to March 2016 focused upon prevention and treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy, a particular blindness caused by diabetes that makes people sightless slowly. Mr. Dejgaard has called the partnership as efficient, smooth and was hopeful for sustainability of the WDF funded initiative for common people’s access to quality diagnosis and treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy.

NBJK run Loknayak Jai Prakash Eye Hospital (Bahera, Chouparan) has been provided modern equipments, training and other supports from WDF during the period to initiate mass awareness against Diabetic Retinopathy as well as proper treatment facility at the hospital. Md. Aseem Ali (Asst. Manager, LNJPEH) has informed about diabetes check up camps at 264 villages, related quiz events at 202 schools, 15000 identified diabetic people, 1129 patients of diabetic retinopathy and successful treatment for 250 among them as the outcome of WDF supported project that has touched around 2 lacs people over the issue. We feel grateful for such people centric approach and crucial support from World Diabetes Foundation, he added.

@Eye Care Camp for #Diabetic Retinopathy at LNJPEH Satellite Centre

22 November, Hazaribag: NBJK run Loknayak Jai Prakash Eye Hospital (LNJPEH) has organized an eye check up camp for Diabetic Retinopathy, the blindness on rise due to growing number of diabetic eye patients. The camp was held as the activity to sensitize people during World Diabetes Week with proper publicity and awareness drive in Hazaribag town including nearby villages.

This special eye screening camp was free of cost and total 249 patients have been registered on the day. 50 patients for diabetes, 09 for diabetic retinopathy and 21 for cataract were diagnosed while 108 eye patients have been provided medicines on zero cost. The people in need of immediate medical treatment were referred to base hospital.

Dr. Alok Kumar (ophthalmologist, LNJPEH) and Dr. Arun Jain (Diabetes Specialist, Hazaribag) have provided their consultancy to all patients with a support team from Loknayak Jai Prakash Eye Hospital. Mr. Gandharv Gaurav (Program Director), Vikant Singh, Mintu Rajak, Pankaj Kumar, Annapurna Devi, Punam Pandey, Sabina Naaz, Kamal Rana, Anjali, Sneha, Dinesh Ram, Suman Kumari, Babita etc have played significant role to arrange the camp.

Inclusion Workshop at Chatra by LNJPEH

01 September 2015, Chatra: NBJK run Loknayak Jai Prakash Eye Hospital (Bahera, Chouparan) has organized an Inclusion Workshop on Eye Care  with support of Sightsavers (Kolkata) at the Civil Surgeon Office of Chatra district, Jharkhand. Dr. S. P. Singh (Civil Surgeon) has applauded the initiative and assured for systemic support to the cause. He admitted the constraint like shortage of ophthalmologists and praised LNJPEH for its services. During opening session, Mr. Girija Satish (President, NBJK) has welcomed the Civil Surgeon and officials of district health department for the workshop focused upon mutual cooperation with District Blindness Control Society. He mentioned about Satellite Centre at Chatra town and Eye Screening Camps in remote villages of the district by LNJPEH as an initiative to be scaled up with other measures by the district administration. Dr. Jitendra Kumar (Sightsavers) has stated about poor health index of Chatra district where 93% people live in villages and 66% are below poverty line. He suggested for training to Sahiyas (village level health workers) by the hospital to identify and facilitate eye patients towards further treatment. The eye hospital was represented by Mr. Gandharv Gaurav (Program Manager) who briefed about the wide range of eye care services available there including quality treatment for Diabetic Retinopathy. We did more than 2 lacs OPDs, 46000 cataract surgeries and 24000 refractions with 65% cases free or subsidized, pointed out Mr. Gaurav. Md. Asim Ali (Asst. Manager) has expressed concern over low CSR (Cataract Surgery Ratio) that can be enhanced with collective efforts. Mr. T. K. Sinha (DPO – NRHM) has assured to prepare a micro plan for such orientation to Sahiyas.

500 Cases of Diabetic Retinopathy at LNJPEH @WorldDiabetesF

NBJK run Loknayak Jaiprakash Eye hospital, Bahera (Chouparan, Hazaribag) has treated 500 patients of diabetic retinopathy successfully since launching of the special program on preventive and curative measures for the disease in July 2013 with support of World Diabetes Foundation, Denmark. Mr. Aseem Ali (Asst. Manager, LNJPEH) has informed about awareness drive in 100 villages and quiz competition in 50 schools over diabetic retinopathy by the hospital. He referred the data by WDF about 170 million diabetic people worldwide with assumed number of 366 million by the year 2030 while 1.85 million people are currently suffering from the blindness namely diabetic retinopathy caused by diabetes. It’s significant that with support of World Diabetes Foundation, LNJPEH could serve such patients with modern equipments and remarkable precision at the small village of Bahera as most of the people are unable to afford proper treatment of this sort of sightlessness at distant places. Mr. Ali has added further about growing number of diabetic patients in villages also where people are supposed to be hard workers manually. The eye hospital organizes screening camps in remote villages to access people in dire need of eye care and provides them all possible medical help immediately with the objective of quality service at low cost.

Eye Screening Camp at NBJK Coordination Office

Loknayak Jaiprakash eye hospital, Bahera (Chouparan) has organized eye screening camp on April 2, 2015 for all at premises of NBJK coordination office, village-Amrit Nagar, Hazaribag. The camp was supported by SKS Microfinance and around 250 persons with eye/vision problem from Amrit Nagar and neighboring villages like Oriya, Singhaani, Jagdishpur, Sakhiya, Baheri, Chano, Silwar, Sarauni etc. have come here for check up. There were facilities to check patients of cataract, refraction and diabetic retinopathy also by confirming their blood sugar and blood pressure instantly. More than 50 people were diagnosed as suffering from cataract and their surgery will take place at the base hospital shortly. Most of the patients were old aged, women, children and those do not get chance to avail eye care facilities easily. A number of staffs from LNJPEH and SKS Microfinance have contributed to make the camp successful. LNJPEH will organize more eye screening camps with support from SKS Microfinance on 7, 9 and 14 April at LNJPEH vision center (Hazaribag town), Kariyatpur and Dhamna villages in Ichak and Barhi blocks of the district. Mr. Gandharv Gaurav (Director, LNJPEH) has confirmed that early access to eye care services is always vital for prevention or cure and the hospital aims to reach common people with such initiatives.

LNJP Eye Hospital Supports Sahiyas

Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Eye Hospital, Bahera (Chouparan) will orient village health workers or Sahiyas to make people aware of eye care and related services existing within their reach, said Mr. Asim Ali (Manager, LNJPEH) during the District level Sahiya convention at Town Hall, Hazaribag on 2^nd March. He added that 80% cases of blindness can be prevented or cured with timely medical intervention and a Sahiya will be instrumental as the link person for people suffering from eye problem in villages. Sahiya convention was organized by District Health Committee, Hazaribag and inaugurated by Dr. Dharmveer (Civil Surgeon, Hazaribag) who appreciated village women working as Sahiya to facilitate essential health services for mothers & children. He has briefed about Pentavalent vaccine for children that can save them from deadly diseases. The civil surgeon has visited LNJPEH stall also and asked about services available at the hospital or its satellite centers. He has assured about access to health services for marginalized people in remote villages under National Health Mission. It is noteworthy that cataract is a major cause of blindness in rural areas and LNJPEH will support Sahiyas in detection and treatment of people suffering from eye diseases.

Australian Retina Specialist at LNJP Eye Hospital

Dr. (Mrs.) Sudha Cugati, an experienced and royal fellow ophthalmologist from Australia has arrived at Loknayak Jaiprakash Eye Hospital, Bahera (Chouparan), Hazaribag to serve patients in need of eye care voluntarily. From 22 – 31 December, she provided her expertise and consultancy to more than 365 patients at OPD, 65 patients for medical retina and performed 25 cataract surgeries at the hospital. Dr. Sudha belongs to Ranchi (Jharkhand) basically and has a deep sense of belongingness for people of her home state. During her stay, she has addressed a press conference also and stressed over precaution for various eye diseases, particularly Diabetic Retinopathy; the blindness caused by diabetes. Dr. Sudha has said that there are around 6.5 million Indians with diabetes and 1.5 million are suffering from diabetic retinopathy that damages their retina with no alternatives. She suggested for regular check up and life style changes. Mr. Girija Satish (President, NBJK) has welcomed Dr. Sudha Cugati and appreciated her spirit for service. He briefed her about LNJPEH and it’s commitment for quality service at low cost to fulfill the need of poor people who otherwise can’t get such specialized services at the base hospital including satellite centres at districts towns like Hazaribag, Chatra, Koderma and Sherghati (Gaya). Dr. Sudha Cugati was supported by LNJPEH team that includes Dr. Umesh, Asim Ali, Karunanidhi, Madhubala, Poonam Pandey, Rajendra Verma and others to perform her professional acumen.