Hundreds of Free Cataract Surgeries Performed at Mandeville Regional Hospital

Approximately 627 free cataract surgeries were performed on patients at the Mandeville Regional Hospital in Manchester, from May 25 to 27, through the Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA).

The operations were carried out by a team of eye specialists from India under the Cataract Camp Mission 2024, which was made possible by the Florida-based Mind, Body and Soul Health Ministry in collaboration with the Patel Family Foundation.

This is the eighth such Mission led by Anaestheologist, Dr. Nitin Shah, and coordinated at the hospital by its Consultant Ophthalmologist, Dr. Gavin Henry, and a medical team from the institution.

Since its inception, the Mission has impacted 15,592 persons with surgeries, vision screenings, free eyeglasses and haemoglobin tests.

Head of Mind, Body and Soul Health Ministry, Hilary Morgan, expressed gratitude to the Patel Family Foundation and Dr. Shah for making the Mission a success.

“In spite of the many challenges we had, we made it. We are a team and all of our team’s focus is on the patients, so we strive to do our best to serve the patients. Dr. Shah continuously says ‘yes, let’s do this’,” Mrs. Morgan said.

“We also did eye screenings at Villa Road Primary and St. Elizabeth Technical High Schools on this trip. We have a well-oiled machine and everybody did their part, from the janitor all the way up. It took everyone’s effort for this to happen, so we appreciate everyone,” she added.

For his part, Dr. Henry described the Mission as the most successful to date, having surpassed the number of persons they had anticipated over the three days.

He said having only done one such Mission in October last year, the staff was experiencing “camp fatigue”, adding that because of the general “can do” attitude, it became easy to organise and no one said no when asked to perform a task.

“The standard of surgeries was better this time than in previous years. I don’t take this lightly. The standard is usually excellent, but it gets better and better,” Dr. Henry said, adding that when he sees patients, post-surgery, the results are clean.

“To do 627 patients in three days is normally impossible in many jurisdictions. So I feel proud that we have been able to achieve this and I trust that, going forward, the template will be maintained,” he added.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer, Caribbean Community for the Blind/Eye Caribbean, Dr. Arvel Grant, praised the leadership of the SRHA and the hospital for what was achieved.

He expressed the hope that the organisation can inspire stakeholders in the other health Regions to come on board, so that more persons can benefit.

“When we began here at the hospital, we had a part-time ophthalmologist and nurse doing 3,600 patients a year or 75 per week, and we are doing three times as many today. That has moved under the leadership of the Region and the hospital to close to 40 staff seeing more than 50,000 patients a year. The Cataract Camp Mission fits nicely into a situation like this,” Dr. Grant added.

Since the Cataract Camp Mission started, they have completed 3,097 surgeries, 7,922 vision screenings, distributed 3,774 pairs of eyeglasses and done 799 checks for haemoglobin.

The Patel Family Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation located in the United States.