Eye hospitals gearing up for elective procedures First step is to attend only urgent cases that cannot be delayed further

Cataract, retina and other eye surgeries will now require extreme caution as ophthalmologists gear up for elective procedures in hospitals. Coming close to the patient exposes doctors to nose and mouth and also viceversa, making it a challenging task in case of infectious diseases.

The state government has asked all small clinics and hospitals to now start elective procedures, but this will not be easy.

There have been no cataract or retina surgeries in the last two months in any of the hospitals. Only emergency cases of injuries and procedures where there was fear of loss of complete sight were attended to.

Dr Atul Gupta, senior government ophthalmologist says that doctors must take “extreme care when working close to eyes, ears, nose, throat and teeth. These are the routes of transmission and we are gearing up, keeping the safety aspects in mind. It will be difficult but that is the road ahead as personal protection equipment will be required not only in operation theatres but also in out-patient departments.”

The first step is to attend only to those urgent cases that cannot be postponed any longer. Appointments will have to be taken 30 minutes apart. To ensure that there is no crowding and not too many people in waiting rooms, diagnostic tests will be carried out only if needed. Most crucially, operation theatres will have to be completely sanitised after every procedure/operation.

Dr T. Krishnan, senior retinal surgeon at Maxivision Eye Hospital said, “We have to limit patients’ visit and also time spent at the hospital. There cannot be waiting time of hours as we had earlier. For retina patients, drops are put in the eyes and they have to wait 45 minutes for the eye to dilate they will now be advised to do this at home before coming.”

Patients from the districts and surrounding areas may not want to venture out so far from their homes for treatment and the lack of income in these lockdown months may make these procedures the last priority. Only those who have insurance or government health cards or can pay for the treatment will come to hospitals, health experts say.