Agency The Lagos State has planned to designate one of its general hospitals as a centre for ophthalmic speciality to improve care for patients with eye conditions. The Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi disclosed this during the fourth Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Africa Retina Society on Thursday in Lagos. The event was themed, ‘Upscaling Retinal Services in a Resource-Constrained Economy’.
According to Abayomi, the centre would provide world-class diagnostic, medical, surgical and ophthalmic services in Lagos and Nigeria. He stressed that the state would prioritise eye health, noting was working on developing the screening capacity of all its primary healthcare facilities to detect eye diseases early. “The conditions that affect the eyes very much reflect the conditions of the community in which you live.
HIV, for example, was a major problem in South Africa, and I certainly experienced the impact of HIV on our day-to-day medicine and practice. “Here in Nigeria, we have other things. We have hypertension, diabetes, sickle cell, and lots of trauma.
These are the kinds of things that we see in our clinics here in Lagos and in Nigeria. “We need to be able to understand how these prevailing conditions really affect us,” he said. The commissioner further said that efforts are ongoing to promote eye screening, especially in schools, starting with the training of teachers to detect students exhibiting challenges with their visio.