Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital organizes Panel Discussion on “Conceptualization and developing linkages for establishing the hospital as Centre of Excellence in Pediatric Ophthalmology” at Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi

New Delhi, August 07, 2023: Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital hosted a panel discussion cum visioning retreat to discuss strategies and channelize the way forward to develop Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital as a Pediatric Centre of Excellence in ophthalmology. The panel discussion was led by Dr Suma Ganesh, Chairperson – Pediatric Centre of Excellence and Director Pediatric Ophthalmology.

Dr Ritu Chaudhary, State Programme Officer, NPCB & VI was the Chief Guest and one of the panellists from the list that included experts and policy/decision makers from government and private sector.

The panel of experts were Dr. Ajay Singh, State Coordinator and OSD, Inclusive Education Branch, Directorate of Education, GNCTD, Dr. Rishi Raj Borah, Country Director, Orbis, Dr. B. R. Shamanna, Professor, School of Medical Sciences, University of Hyderabad (moderator), Mr. Anshu Taneja, Managing Director, Vision Spring, Mr. Pratik Agarwal, Executive Director, Aastha, Mr. Yogesh Andley, Co-Founder, Nucleus Software, Dr. Umang  Mathur, CEO, Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital and Mr. Shantanu Das Gupta, Director – Strategic Planning and Sustainability, Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital.

The panelists discussed the interventions needed to fill the gaps in prevention of childhood blindness. They brainstormed on the use of technology, training and education in the subspecialty, referral policy, advocacy, research, social behavioural communication and collaborations in making the hospital a Pediatric Centre of Excellence to fill that gap in north India.

Dr. Ritu Chaudhary said that there was a dearth of infrastructure and trained staff to treat preventable blindness among children and the need to train more and more ophthalmologists, optometrists and other medical personnel in this subspecialty has never been so urgent. She congratulated Dr. Suma Ganesh and the team at the hospital for doing some exemplary work in the pediatric eye care, including Retinopathy of Prematurity (RoP). She added that her department will provide full support to the hospital in taking pediatric eye care to all and collaborate on all possible platforms to use the expertise of the team at Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital.

Dr. Ajay Kumar Singh explained how his department promotes healthcare accessibility by organizing medical and eye screening camps in schools and also fosters an inclusive environment by providing education cross disability training for special teachers to help children with visual impairment.

Each panelist articulated a key message: the need to channel efforts towards designing comprehensive and inclusive solutions that improve accessibility of pediatric eye care and fill the backlog in north India.

Dr. Suma Ganesh, Head of Paediatric ophthalmology and Strabismus,“Pediatric eye care is an essential and often overlooked part of eye care. Very few speciality centres are able to provide the kind of eye care children need. Both prevention and cure are important aspects of pediatric eye care. We, here at Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital (SCEH), are determined to provide an exceptional level of care for children. We are proud to say that SCEH is committed to screening more than two million children in the community per year. At our secondary centres and base hospital, we treat 40,000 children per year and perform 4,400 pediatric eye surgeries per year in all subspecialties.”

Dr. Umang Mathur, CEO, Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital, Daryaganj, “Examining children needs special skills and treatment requires specific training, knowledge and equipment. There is a need to build the infrastructure for service delivery including equipping the facilities and supporting community work, along with the development of all cadres of human resources required; having the right people in the right place is the cornerstone of any successful public health program.”

Dr. B. R. Shamanna,“Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Care is very well poised to establish the Pediatric Centre of Excellence (COE), one of its kind catering to most of northern and central India region. Many of PCOE are in south India and SCEH will fill that gap. The day’s deliberation has made phenomenal headway in terms of trying to look at the nuts and bolts of setting up a Centre of Excellence in pediatric eye care and the next step is to very quickly put our heads together to take it to completion.”

Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)