Bangalore: Super specialty Bangalore hospital Narayana Nethralaya has become the country’s first facility to screen eyes of premature babies for any disease affecting their vision.
Launched under the state-run National Rural Health Mission, the novel community paediatric eye programme will focus on retinopathy of pre-maturity (RoP), eye care, vision, eye cancer and rehabilitation that will complement the central government-sponsored RBSK — Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (national child welfare programme).
“The pilot programme is aimed at universal screening of all babies born till one year, using a low-cost method of the government’s healthcare delivery system,” Nethralaya chairman Bhujang Shetty told reporters here yesterday.
Under the NRHM, the Health and Family Welfare Ministry has designed the programme to provide screening to over 270 million babies born every year across the country for defects at birth, diseases, deficiencies and developmental delay leading to disability.
“When Karnataka was selected to implement the project on a pilot basis, we proposed our Forever programme, which was under implementation in the state in collaboration with the state government,” Shetty recalled.
On knowing about the initiative of the eye hospital, state Health and Family Welfare Secretary Keshav Desiraju hoped the trend-setting public-private partnership in healthcare would inspire other hospitals to implement the project in the states across the country.
“As a catalyst, Narayana Nethralaya should guide healthcare organisations in other regions to extend its Forever project with our RBSK programme for the benefit of millions of new born babies in the country,” Desiraju said.
The Forever programme will use the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) worker to examine babies at critical time points using a low-cost method. IANS
