Kashmir to get 100-bedded state-of-art eye institute

After a decade of delay, J&K will finally get its own Regional Institute of Ophthalmology (RIO) that will provide state-of-the-art eye care facilities for the region.

A proposal to set up the RIO at Kashmir Nursing Home atGupkar here has been approved by the state government. The proposal, anofficial in Health and Medical Education Department said, had been approvedlast month by health and medical education department, department of financeand planning and is slated to be put up before the State Administrative Council(SAC).

   

Confirming the development, Principal Government MedicalCollege (GMC) Srinagar Prof Parvaiz A Shah said that the hospital building atGupkar will be renovated and refurbished to suit the requirements for the RIO.

“We will be shifting the ophtho services in a phased mannerto the new location afterwards while trauma services will continue to operatefrom the SMHS Hospital,” he said.

He said that the decision to continue operating eye traumafacilities from the SMHS Hospital had been taken in view of havingmulti-disciplinary trauma facilities at the hospital to cater to usual cases ofmultiple-site injuries accompanying eye injuries.

Prof Shah said that staff requirement for the RIO had alsobeen projected and SAC was expected to clear it soon.

The recently retired principal of GMC Srinagar Prof KaiserAhmed Koul said that GMC had strived hard to get the proposal sanctioned.

“It was a long pending demand and the initial proposal hadbeen submitted a decade back,” he said and added the RIO will have allfacilities required to treat eye diseases and help in control of blindness.

The 100-bedded Institute sponsored under the GoI’s NationalProgram for Control of Blindness (NPCB) was allocated to the GMC Srinagar in2010 and was, at that time, the 20th such institute in India. After gatheringdust for about seven years, the state government had directed GMC Srinagar toresubmit the proposal in 2017.

The central assistance paves way for eight super-specialtiesin Ophthalmology and would include departments of oculoplasty,neuro-ophthalmology, pediatric ophthalmology, ocular pathology and communityophthalmology.

Currently, the SMHS Hospital has availability of humanresource for just three super-specialties—retina, glaucoma and cornea—anofficial said.

The institute, the official said, will also providefacilities for training of manpower and research activities in the field ofophthalmology. Kashmir has a high incidence of eye trauma and due to highoccurrence of lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes, glaucoma and other eyeailments are also very common.

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