MPH to perform 50 cataract operations as part of World Sight Day commemoration
North West Health MEC Madoda Sambatha together with representatives from The South African Optometric Association (SAOA) will commemorate World Sight Day, an International Annual Day of Awareness with cataract operations on Tuesday, 13 October 2020 at Mahikeng Provincial Hospital.
From the 12th – 16th October 2020, Mahikeng Provincial Hospital Ophthalmology Department has planned to operate 50 Cataract patients with an aim to reduce the backlog which was created by the COVID-19 lockdown. MEC Sambatha together with SAOA will gift 50 patients prescribed spectacles with the aim of restoring their vision.
World Sight Day is held on the second Thursday of October every year to bring awareness about the prevalence of blindness and visual impairment.
South Africa as one of the signatories to VISION 2020: The Right to Sight initiative, subscribed to a resolution of the World Health Assembly in May 2009, committed the country to eliminating avoidable blindness by the year 2020.
In the financial year 2019/20 the Department together with South African National Council for the Blind managed to perform 2480 cataract surgeries and awarded 3652 spectacle devices.
The theme for Eye Care Awareness Month 2020 is ‘Hope in Sight’.
The event is scheduled as follows:
Date: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Time: 9h00
Venue: Mahikeng Provincial Hospital
The Media is invited.
Enquiries:
Tebogo Lekgethwane
Departmental Spokesperson
0674227763
