Filling the Void in the Public Health Sector for Affordable Eye Care
Over the weekend, a visiting team from U.S. treated hundreds in need of eye care. Now, the Belize Council for the Visually Impaired has been filling the void in the public health sector as it relates to persons who cannot afford to get treatment at private healthcare institutions. With the number of persons losing their vision due to diabetes and other conditions, the B.C.V.I. has been assisting thousands. Here is News Five’s Duane Moody.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Your eyes are an important part of your health and should be checked as often as needed to ensure that your vision is at its optimum at every stage of your life. But that kind of healthcare service, at least in Belize, is not available as part of the public healthcare system; in fact, it is mostly carried out by optometrists and ophthalmologists at private health institutions and is not affordable for low income families. There are a number of healthcare issues when it comes to the eye and in the past few years, unchecked diabetes is severely affecting vision.
Carla Ayres Musa
Carla Ayres Musa, Executive Director, B.C.V.I.
“It’s one of the least known about complications. So we have patients that come in for a regular eye exam because they are not seeing well. And it is actually our ophthalmologist that tells them you have diabetic retinopathy and the patient doesn’t even know they have diabetes. So it is a nationwide health epidemic and if you are not controlling your diabetes, you will develop retinopathy; you will lose your vision. We have a patient as young as thirty-seven years old who is totally blind because he did not take care of himself and did not get the proper nutritional support or health care support at the primary level to prevent vision loss.”
The Belize Council for the Visually Impaired, for almost four decades, has been providing eye care services to Belizeans nationwide. On a yearly basis, over twenty thousand persons access its facilities across the country and a small contribution is accepted in return for the services.
Carla Ayres Musa
“We do eye screening throughout the year, every week day and through our clinics throughout the country, we identify patients who need specialist care. There is no surgeon in the entire country in the public sector. We have an ophthalmologist, a specialist who can examine patients and what she does is refer these patients for the visiting teams coming in. When we started it was strictly international funding. Over the years, we have become completely self-sustainable and that really has to do with the people accessing the service and the team we have on the ground. So we do have fees for services: you’ll pay ten dollars to see the optometrist, twenty dollars to see the specialist; we do have an assistance programme for patients who can’t afford it.”
Every month, there is a team of doctors who visit with the B.C.V.I. to provide specialized services to persons needing advanced eye care procedures. Through the Mark Jayden Project, a charity foundation from the U.S., a team of cataract surgeons, retino-specialist, glaucoma-specialist and even optometrists has visited Belize. They go around the world, but mostly in the Caribbean, as well as Central and South American countries to provide the best eye care services free of cost.
Doctor Zachary Segal is from Med Eye Associates in Miami and is the spokesperson for the team. In this their second visit, he says that there are a number of patients who received medical procedures.
Zachary Segal
Dr. Zachary Segal, Owner, Med Eye Associates
“We have physicians that deal with retina problems, glaucoma problems, cataract problems, glasses problems as well. And so when we come down here and bring our team, we are very well capable of handling the most prevalent problems that people face—cataracts being one of them, glaucoma being a big issue and then retina problems which you see in many patients with diabetes. Diabetes is a problem that’s ravaging the entire world, not just one country here or there.”
While everyone develops cataract as they age, the condition is compounded by severe glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. Those patients will need further surgical care to stem the progress of their eye disease or illness. And as we found out, some patients are scared about taking a surgery and for that reason have been living with various eye conditions for years. Others were ready to get their treatment.
Yolanda Young
Yolanda Young, Patient
“I’ve known that I have it about four years now, but it wasn’t ready yet for me to do my surgery. When I am watching TV, my eyes would get blurred or if I am readying, my eyes start getting blurred and I can’t see the letters properly so I knew something was wrong. So I was told that I had cataracts from then so it’s been about four years, but it wasn’t ready yet.”
Duane Moody
“So you ready for your procedure?”
Yolanda Young
“Long time.”
Hortence Reimer
Hortence Reimer, Patient
“I didn’t want to take it because I was scared. But I talked to some friends that already take it and they said it is easy. I used to think they would take out my eyes. So I spoke to Nurse Buckley and she said no they won’t take out my eyes. She says it is just twenty minutes and you are free to go. That’s what happened this morning. I got my surgery and I am glad about it. And I would advise anybody who got cataract—get surgery cause it is nothing that will be like pain or something. It is just like when you are ‘ticklishing’ your eyes.”
But what happens in the case of an emergency – for example, a surgical procedure that cannot be done at the B.C.V.I.? Those persons are referred to a private institution because the public healthcare system does not have the capacity or the human resources to address these cases. Ayres-Musa says that there is a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Health and most referrals are made to the B.C.V.I. In that same vein, she admits that investment by G.O.B. is needed in human resources for specialized treatment.
Carla Ayres Musa
“I think that the government has a huge role to play in this because really the problem in eye care right now is that there is zero service in the government sector. So all the national or I should say non-private eye care is being provided by an N.G.O., by B.C.V.I. So with our limited resources, we are not able to send people away as we please to train to become optometrist or become ophthalmologist.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
