Over 200 patients from rural areas around Bulolo district are at the Bulolo hospital to get eye treatment.
This follows a successful rural eye care program. Specialists from Goroka are treating older patients who can’t travel far from Bulolo.
The district administration has committed to fund the program and help with referrals.
The patients who lined up yesterday to get treatment for eye problems are the result of a successful rural eye care program.
At Bulolo’s hospital, the number of patients has been constant; the hospital has had many patients per day over the last several weeks.
Most develop vision problems with old age and often suffer from cataracts that completely affect vision in one eye or even both.
“Our eyes have to be alright in order for us to live,” says Bulolo resident, Edwin Ben.
Eye specialist Dr Michael Seward, who has removed many cataracts, says the statistics show that many suffer from this problem in Papua New Guinea.
But people living in rural areas suffer the most, without specialists and access to health services.
“We have mainly been doing cataract surgery,” says Dr Michael Seward. This comes after the rural eye care program, stretched over the last two to three years, and its’ impacts, have seen the old able to get treatment in their villages.
The Bulolo district administration has made commitments to continually support the program and this has allowed people from Waria and Garaina Valley to come in for treatment.
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