Pensioner Dolly Rampersad has been hoping to do cataract surgery at the San Fernando General Hospital for the past few months but she may well go blind before the surgery is done there.
With no specialised tools, no lenses and no drugs for glaucoma, hundreds of eye surgeries have to be postponed at the hospital, which serves a catchment area of approximately 700,000 people.
Rampersad, 82, who uses a walking stick to move around, said she was frustrated as she could not get an appointment for the surgery.
“I cannot see well in both eyes. I need help to go to the toilet and it is very frustrating,” Rampersad said.
Her daughter, Marge Samlal, said her mother went to the eye clinic on several occasions but was told the waiting list was long and she needed to have the surgery done as soon as possible else she would go blind.
“She get fed up with the up-and-down at the hospital and getting no help so now we are arranging for her to do the surgery privately,” Samlal said.
However, another cataract patient Bhagoo Ramnavaj said he got an appointment to do cataract surgery in April 2017 when he went to the clinic two months ago.
“I am seeing smoky and I cannot afford to do the surgery privately. I have to wait,” Ramnavaj said.
Former medical director of the San Fernando General Hospital, Dr Anand Chatoorgoon, confirmed operations at the Eye Department were bad with a shortage of not only drugs but specialised tools and lenses required for cataract surgeries.
“Many of the patients carded for eye surgeries have to be postponed, especially in cases where the patients cannot afford to have the necessary tests done prior to eye surgery and where the patients cannot afford to purchase the lenses or the required drugs,” Chatoorgoon said.
He also revealed there was no endoscopy equipment at the hospital which allowed doctors to view the stomach.
“Many of the patients are having a rough time. When doctors write letters nothing is done. The hospital doesn’t have the equipment to look into the stomach and that has been festering for months,” Chatoorgoon said.
RADHICA DE SILVA