Iringa regional hospital is set to open an eye surgery theatre and an optical workshop (vision centre) as part of the implementation of comprehensive eye care services provided in the region.

The theatre  that has so far cost over 80m/- is constructed at the regional hospital by a not-for-profit organization, Sightsavers, and will have state-of-the-art equipment to cater for patients in the region. Sightsavers Programme Officer, Ms Christina S. Mbise, said that the theatre was expected to be handed over to the hospital by September this year.

“The theatre is constructed where there was a ward before, so it was more of renovating the building to transform it into an operating theatre. Most of the work is complete save for a few modifications. We expect to hand it over at the end of August or sometime in September,” she said.

According to Ms Mbise, the renovation of the building to transform it into a theatre started in earnest in January this year and has been wholly funded by Sightsavers until its completion. She added that Sightsavers will also contribute some needed equipment and has been working hard to bring onboard other stakeholders to support the project.

The Iringa Regional Medical Officer (RMO), Dr Robert Salim, told ‘Daily News’ that besides Sightsavers, another NGO, International Centre for Eye Education, had donated state-of-the-art equipment worth over 71m/- for the theatre. He said it would be the first eye theatre at the hospital and would enable eye specialists to do regular surgeries on patients who need to be operated on unlike now where surgeries can only be performed once a week and under strenuous conditions.

“At the moment we operate on patients using the general theatre. This has its problems because we can only do so on Mondays and the surgeon has to have the necessary manpower to prepare the equipment,” he said. As for the optical workshop or vision centre, he said that it was the first of its kind in the region since they have also received equipment to produce and provide to patients spectacles.

He said that prior to the workshop, the hospital could never provide patients with glasses and were thus forced to order the same from other regions or private optical companies which was costly.

Source Tanzania Daily News

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