Young doctors cut through waiting list

Scores of patients were given the gift of sight at Frontier Hospital in Komani at the weekend thanks to two young doctors.

With October being Eye Awareness Month, doctors Gcobani Tuswa, from Vereeniging, and Nkosiphendule Nozozo, from Port Elizabeth, performed 101 cataract operations at no cost.

Provincial health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the two had volunteered their services and that the non-communicable diseases directorate had assisted with accommodation and meals for the doctors and ophthalmic nurses from the district.

Frontier Hospital provided transport in the form of a hired car for Dr Tuswa, he said.

Patients were transported to and from the hospital by the provincial health department’s patient transfer services.

On Saturday, the cataracts of 64 patients were removed by 1.30pm and on Sunday, the remaining patients were seen to.

Dr Tuswa, who is originally from Mthatha, said when the opportunity arose, he could not resist giving back to his home province.

“It was a tough working weekend, but everything ran very well and they have an incredibly dedicated team here at the Frontier Hospital. Without that dedication it wouldn’t have worked. There’s a lot of preparation beforehand and with the help of the staff we managed to get through everyone,” Tuswa said.

Frontier Hospital CEO, Sindiswa Tywabi said they had a dedicated ophthalmology unit, but they served a vast area that often resulted in long waiting periods.

She said after the departure of one of the hospital’s ophthalmologists earlier this year, waiting periods had to be extended to between three and six months. “We cover a large area and have patients from as far as Willowvale and Sterkspruit. So we would be unable to operate on all these patients in such a short time without these two young doctors and their generosity,” said Tywabi.

Tywabi said cataracts were the leading cause of blindness, and that removing them was the only way to prevent sight loss. “It’s often a life-changing procedure. You can see when the patients walk out that they are so excited because they start to regain their sight,” said Tywabi.

She said some of the patients who had been operated on at the weekend would not have gone under the knife before March or even July. “It’s really exciting for them [the patients] to get the operation done so much earlier. And it’s exciting and rewarding for us to be able to make it happen.

“They have nowhere else to go. The don’t have medical aid so they rely on public health services,” she said.

It’s often a lifechanging procedure. You can see when the patients walk out that they are so excited because they start to regain their sight