Eye institute in Delhi gets high-tech equipment from Japan

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Japan today donated five high-tech microscopes to a city-based charitable society working in the area of eye ailments, with its envoy saying that such facilities should be used especially for ameliorating the condition of the underprivileged people.
The Japanese Embassy donated the medical equipment to Venu Eye Institute and Research Centre under the Grant Assistance Grassroots Project of that country.
"We are glad to know that the equipments we had donated earlier are being properly used and maintained. And, so we decided to give another grant. And, these equipments should be used especially for the underprivileged patients.
"Medical fees are very high and so the institute should reach out to the underprivileged society for getting them better treatment and care and for preventing them from getting blindness," Ambassador of Japan to India, Kenji Hiramatsu said.

Joint Director and Medical Superintendent of the institute, Dr Abhishek Dagar, said, this was the third grant given by the Japanese government.
"We have given grants earlier under the scheme for schools, check dams, medical facilities in Delhi and outside. And, so this new grant today is also a symbol of the friendship between India and Japan," Kenji said.

The Ambassador was later given a tour of the facilities there and he also witnessed a cataract surgery, performed by a team of doctors, using the new equipments.
The 100-bedded facility, set up over 30 years ago, has besides a base hospital in Delhi, five satellite hospitals.

"There are 37 million people blind in the world. One-third of these blind people live in India. 80 per cent of blindness is avoidable (cataract and refractive errors). Majority of the blind live in rural areas, while most of the eye care services and facilities are available in urban areas," according to the institute.