LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) launched its 100th vision centre for primary care as part of its programme providing universal eye health coverage to remote and underserved areas. The Institute is expanding its network of permanent primary eye care facilities in rural India with this centre at Araku village, a predominantly tribal area in Visakhapatnam district.
To serve the under privileged communities and reach the unreached segment in the eye health value chain, The Gullapalli Pratibha Rao International Centre for Advancement of Rural Eye Care (GPR ICARE), the public health component of LVPEI, has established a network of Vision Centres (primary centres) linked to secondary centres across rural and remote rural locations in Andhra Pradesh. The Institute’s latest secondary centre was launched in Bellary, in the neighbouring state of Karnataka, and there are projects underway to expand the network into Odisha as well, with three projects underway – Rajgangapur, Berhampur and Rayagada. LVPEI has a ‘pyramidal model of eye care delivery’ from the primary to advanced tertiary levels.
ICARE aims to reach out to the communities to deliver affordable and qualitative eye healthcare services, and conduct systematic research for the improvement and advancement of eye healthcare services. The idea is that any village should be able to walk out the street and get their eyes screened free of cost. This is assured at both provisions of care as well as to develop a habit of seeking health care in these communities.
Dr Gullapalli N Rao, Founder and Chair – LV Prasad Eye Institute said, “Complemented by dynamic governance, motivated teams and sophisticated technology, ICARE aspires to evolve into a highly efficient eye health care service delivery component for LVPEI as we step into another year with a success driven manifesto given for the next 25 years. In the seventeen years since its inception, our community eye health and outreach team has gained immense experience in community service delivery by the means of its capable staff who are trained to patiently listen to the community eye health needs before they work to restore sight for many.”
With the Araku centre, LVPEI’s network of community eye care services now comprises 100 primary care vision centres and 11 secondary care service centres.
EH News Bureau