60 people lost vision at eye camps organised by NGOs: Govt

As many as 60 people have lost their vision after undergoing operations at eye camps organised by different non government organisations in the country, Lok Sabha was informed today.
In a written reply, Health and Family Welfare Minister J P Nadda said these mishaps of loss of eyesight due to severe post-operative infections have been thoroughly investigated to ascertain the factors that led to them.
145 patients were operated in an eye camp organised by Shri Krishna Agarwal Smriti Trust at Bagbahara district of Chhattisgarh in 2012, out of which 16 were reported to have lost their eyesight.
In another eyecamp organised by SKM Netralaya in four villages of Punjab in 2014, 130 patients were operated for cataract, of which 29 lost sight in the operated eye.

Eyes of 15 people out of 60 were totally damaged after going through cataract surgery at an eye camp in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh in 2014.
"National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB) has circulated 'Pre-operative, intra-operative and post-operative guidelines' for strict compliance by eye surgeons and all eye care units including NGO eye hospitals in the country to improve quality of eye surgery and avoid eye mishaps," the Minister said.
He said that an advisory was issued to all states/Union territories regarding precaution to be followed on Ophthalmic Surgeries to avoid cases of loss of vision.
"The advisory states, inter alia, that eye operations are to be done only in fixed operation theatres exclusive for eye surgeries. Camps are permitted only for screening of patients and bringing them to the base hospital for eye surgeries. All NGOs and voluntary organisation approved under NPCB need to sign an MoU with the district authority as per the guidelines issued under NPCB," Nadda said.