First-hand account of travel with CBM by Alan and Lynn Jeffs, CBM supporters.
For the complete story, please click on the link: CBM story
A Clear Vision of Better Care
Cataract surgery can improve the care of children orphaned by Aids dramatically and rapidly, a Swaziland study published in last month’s South African Medical Journal has found.
Dr. Jonathan Pons and his team interviewed 131 cataract surgery patients aged 50 years and older at the Good Shepherd Mission Hospital in Swaziland’s Lubombo region. At the time of the research, Pons was the only eye specialist in the country. The mean ages of the male and female patients interviewed were 70.5 years and 69.2 years respectively. About half reported being the primary caregiver for at least one child.
The interviews were conducted with patients during follow-up visits two weeks after their operations. One-third of the patients who lived within reasonable distances of the hospital were interviewed again several weeks later at their homes.
Research team member William Mapham said: “Cataracts reverse the roles of caregivers and orphans because the children have to start to take care of the adults, who can no longer see well enough to perform the most basic daily tasks, such as washing themselves, going to the toilet or getting dressed.”
Providing excellent eye care requires excellent record keeping and data collection. Why? Because good record keeping ensures continuity of eye care, fulfils medico-legal requirements, and is professional! Good data collection, based on good record keeping, supports health management information systems, hospital audits, scientific research and provides accountability to donors.
High-volume eye surgery requires that patients be moved quickly in and out of the operating room (OR). Static operating tables in the OR make this difficult. Better patient flow can be achieved when using mobile tables, which can be expensive. We have developed an economical, wheeled operating table that can be constructed in a local engineering workshop.
To see the article published in the Community Eye Health Journal click on the link
To a clinician without experience, a person with an eye injury presents a dilemma. This article should reassure you that methodical assessment and treatment of most injuries is simple and within the ambit of every doctor
To see the article published in the Continuous Medical Education Journal click on this link
