The Project Manager of excellence in Ophthalmology Vision Awards, Professor Feyishayo Adepoju says 70 per cent of patients with cataracts live in rural areas, while the majority of healthcare providers are in urban areas.
The expert revealed this in Ilorin on Monday at the launch of the XOVA Cataract Surgical Project 2024.
She explained that the project is dedicated to up scaling cataract services in Kwara State, North-central Nigeria, through outreaches and integration of primary healthcare into primary eye care.
Feyishayo said with a project grant from Novartis, a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland, the project is also aimed at training 48 Primary Healthcare workers in Kwara State communities and providing community eye care to restore sight to more than 1200 cataract patients.
The project manager said that with 70 per cent of cataract patients living in rural areas,
there is a need to fill the care gap through community service advocacy.
The ophthalmologist said that her team had done many outreaches on eye surgery in different towns and villages, including Offa, Igosun, Ajase, New Bussa, Erin Ile, and Okeho, among others.
She said the organization has carried out surgeries on patients with cataracts and glaucoma in and outside Kwara.
The Consultant Ophthalmologist at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital said that the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, can now perform about 50 surgeries in a day.
