ONE has inaugurated the Eye Center of the Quirino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC) in Quezon City as part of the government’s commitment in enhancing the capacity of its hospitals in treating eye diseases with the latest state-of-the-art equipment.
On October 9 the DOH has joined again with the global community in observing World Sight Day, a yearly day of awareness to focus global attention on blindness, visual impairment, and rehabilitation of the visually impaired through the inauguration of QMMC’s new facility.
“As part of our mandate and commitment to ensure that every Filipino receives affordable and quality health care, we are inaugurating the Eye Center of the Quirino Memorial Medical Center,” Ona said.
QMMC is a DOH tertiary referral hospital that will provide comprehensive eye-care services as part of the integrated service delivery network of government health facilities serving Quezon City, Marikina, Calabarzon, and other nearby areas.
The DOH said that in the Philippines, the current estimated number of persons who are bilaterally blind is 303,136 based on the 2014 National Statistics Office population estimate.
Of this number, 59.0 percent is due to cataract, 14.0 percent due to uncorrected refractive errors, 11 percent due to glaucoma, and 11percent is due to retinopathy and maculopathy.
World Sight Day is observed in many countries around the world and serves as a platform in promoting the Global Action Plan on the Prevention of Avoidable Blindness and Visual Impairment 2014-2019 and Vision 2020: The Right to Sight, the global effort to eliminate avoidable blindness launched by the WHO and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.
This year’s theme, “Universal Eye Health”, with the global call to action “No More Avoidable Blindness,” underscores the challenge to sustain efforts in eliminating avoidable and preventable blindness from, for example, cataract, diabetic retinopathy and uncorrected refractive errors.
This year’s observance of World Sight Day is meaningful as the country marks the progress made in the implementation of the new WHO Global Action Plan (GAP) on the prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment 2014-2019. The Plan underscores the commitment of governments to: (a) Collect better evidence on the magnitude and prevalence of blindness; (b) Train more eye care professionals; (c) Provide comprehensive eye care services and integrate them into existing health provision/systems, and (d) Identify and eliminate social and economic obstacles, particularly for the poor and the marginalized.
The observance also launched the Philippine Eye Disease Study, a joint undertaking with the Philippine Eye Research Institute, demonstrating the commitment of the DOH in collecting better evidence on the magnitude and prevalence of blindness, also in response to the call of the GAP.
Efforts are also being made to ensure that the indigent patients belonging to quintile 1 and 2 can avail of cataract surgery in government hospitals for free through the “No Balance Billing” policy of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.