Crosscause eye clinic re-opens

The new eye clinic that the local Crosscause charity was instrumental in opening in a part of Ghana is back functioning again and playing a vital role in helping save and improve the eyesight of people there.

The clinic only opened in February in the Volta region when the Covid virus struck. Fortunately the country escaped lightly and the clinic can now go full steam ahead providing the health services it was purpose built to provide, specialising in eye treatment. No such facilities were available in the area, meaning that those with cataract problems had to make a lengthy trek to the nearest city, involving perhaps a journey of eight hours, to have an operation or procedure done.

These can be carried now in the eye clinic, with Crosscause managing to obtain vital equipment, including three microscopes from the Mater Hospital in Dublin which were being replaced and other eye testing machines from Mullingar and Northern Ireland that no were longer required.

The charity also is donated eye wall charts, and supplies the clinic with pairs of glasses.

The clinic is purpose built, costing €55,000 and took six months to construct, and consists of roughly ten rooms, among which are two to facilitate operations, and two for the recovery of patients, along with a dispensary, assessment room, plus office and storage space.

However, the essential part of the service was the acquisition of the equipment, and what is key to it’s operation is a mobile eye team that carries out assessments of the sight health and needs of villagers in the area.

The team could on average find that ten people in a village may need cataract surgery. This now can be done in the clinic, sparing the patients the long journey and all associated problems with getting to a far off place and providing a more conducive arrangement for recovery and successful outcome.

The clinic is open daily to everybody in the area and dispenses ordinary medicines like eye drops and provides glasses, with also wheelchairs and walking frames available for those with other healthy issues.

Patients will be required to pay a small fee for treatment and the service, which is designed to be should be clinic self financing.