Samsung South Africa has donated screening and treatment equipment to a new eye care treatment centre that has opened in the Western Cape.
The company says Vredendal Hospital Eye Care Centre will provide eye treatment to hundreds of patients who previously had to travel over three hours to Paarl or Cape Town for treatment. Due to huge demand at the facilities in Paarl and Cape Town, patients in Vredendal found themselves waiting months or even years for treatment in the past, it adds.
Construction of the eye care centre was completed in February 2016 and operations commenced in March 2016. The clinic is staffed by a trained Ophthalmic Nurse Specialist, and since July 2016 Dr Junet van der Merwe, an ophthalmologist in the private sector, visits the centre once a month for specialised consultations, surgeries and surgical follow-ups. From March to August 2016 the centre had already had 1 095 consultations of which 869 were new patients seen and 226 were follow-ups.
Samsung says the eye care centre performed its first cataract surgery in July and is already screening and treating between 150 to 200 patients a month. Elizma Anthonissen, an ophthalmic nurse responsible for the Vredendal Hospital Eye Care Clinic, says there has long been a requirement for specialised eye care services in the area, but the extent of the need is only becoming apparent now. "Our patient numbers are growing by the day - we could not have predicted how badly this service was needed."
According to the Western Cape Government Department of Health, the burden of disease recorded among patients from the surrounding Cederberg and Matzikama districts since the centre opened include cataracts, refractive errors, childhood blindness, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. Cataracts caused by ageing or trauma account for many of the eye problems in the region.
The services delivered by the new centre will have an impact far beyond individual patients, says Pitso Kekana, head of corporate citizenship and government relations: at Samsung Africa. The World Health Organisation estimates 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide - 39 million are blind and 246 have low vision. It adds about 90% of the world's visually impaired live in low-income settings.
Untreated visual impairment effects people's ability to work and provide for their families, says Kekana. "While communities, families and ultimately the economy suffer as a result of visual impairment, the fact is that up to 80% of visual impairment could be prevented or treated."
"We see healthcare, education, vocational skills development and small business enablement as crucial pillars of sound economies and better lives for citizens. As such, all of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are focused on these key areas," says Kekana.
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