By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay/Philippine News Agency
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — The Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital (ASMGH) inaugurated its eye center here Thursday to provide free eye screening and other services to indigent Antiqueños with eye defects.
Fred Hollows Foundation country manager Mardi Mapa-Suplido, in her message during the inauguration, said their foundation has responded to the needs of Antiqueños who have eye defects and needing medical attention.
“We know that eye screening is also expensive so the Fred Hollows Foundation is extending its help,” she said.
The foundation is an international development organization working towards eliminating avoidable blindness. It can be found serving in 25 countries, including the Philippines.
Mapa-Suplido said aside from the equipment that they turned over to the ASMGH, there will also be training on eye screening for health personnel of the provincial hospital so that they could assist optometrists and ophthalmologists.
“We even intend to train even the Barangay Health Workers in all barangays in the province,” she said.
The Fred Hollows Foundation has identified Antique and Negros Occidental as beneficiaries of their Community Eye Health Program, implemented with the Department of Health 6 (Western Visayas).
The equipment is worth PHP12 million, which also covers the training of health personnel for the next three years.
Meanwhile, Antique Vice Governor Edgar Denosta said in his message that about 285 million people worldwide have eye problems, while 332,150 people nationwide have been diagnosed to be visually-impaired.
“In Antique, there are many people, including school kids, who unnoticed, are also having eye problems,” Denosta said.
He said that the provincial government has conveyed its profound appreciation for the donation of the foundation because “without the modern equipment to be used for eye screening from the Hollows Foundation, the Eye Center would not be realized.”
Antique provincial board member Dr. Egidio Elio said some 300 to 400 people usually queue up every time they conduct a medical mission.
Elio is also the founder of Tabang Antique, a non-government organization that delivers free medical services to Antiqueños in tandem with doctors of St. Luke’s Hospital in Manila.
“It is sad that we could only cater to 150 to 200 patients with eye defects and so many are just going home without receiving medical attention,” he said.
He said that with the eye center, indigents who are unable to get their needed eye screening through Tabang Antique could now avail of it at the ASMGH.
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