IERG Abstracrt Book.indd - LV Prasad Eye Institute

94 Clinical Poster SessionsConclusions: Our study shows that while in healthy corneas, both methods showed similarcounts; in the case of diseased cornea, the accuracy of the automated count decreased withdecrease in total cells. Manual count is therefore more reliable in compromised endotheliumas automated count overestimates the results, and can even give a value in normal range, thusmisleading the clinician.ICP 009Eye Care for Older Persons Through Café ProjectGiridhar Pyda, 1 Rohit Khanna, 1 B R Shamanna, 2 J Killam 31International Centre for Advancement of Rural Eye Care, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad,India, 2 Public Health and Health Service Research, Hyderabad, India, 3 Eye Sight International,CanadaPurpose: Though 80% of blinding conditions are either preventable or treatable with theavailable technology, the people in the rural areas do not have access to treatment due tomainly cost (direct and indirect) to access the service. Since blindness is more associated withlower socio economic status, older people who are mostly economically unproductive anddependent on their family members have limited access to eye care service. Thus there has tobe a need to find ways of protecting from the cost of medical care. In order to address thisissue L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad with the financial support from Eye Sight International,Canada made an effort to carry out a universal affordable, continuous self sustaining model toprovide eye care to all members of the community irrespective of their socio-economic statusby participating with a small contribution of Re.1/person/month on a yearly basis to facilitatedelivery of eye care.Methods: The novel experiment named “Community Assisted and Financed Eye care” wasinitiated in the 16 villages of West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh for an approximatepopulation of 50,000. The field team collected a payment of Re.1/person/month on a yearlybasis for the entire family after explaining the idea of building a community fund for eye carethat would be managed by a fund manager. Registrants were provided photo identity cardswith payment details for those who were willing to become beneficiaries and for ensuringtransparency in money matters. This covered a complete eye examination at a secondaryeye centre including cataract surgery with intraocular lens (IOL) where needed and minorsurgeries in the economy category of the service provider. The service provider was initiallyreimbursed through the grant money on verification of records of service delivery. The processof registrations started on 11th Oct 2001 (World Sight Day) and lasted till 31st May 2005.The registrations were renewed every year till 31st May 2005 and service delivery by the basehospital was made available till 28th Feb 2006.Results: More than 70% of the population in these villages registered for the plan. Of these65% of families utilized hospital services, with 23,637 outpatients visiting the hospital; 5513persons above 60 years were examined and 978 got operated.Conclusions: The project, which concluded in May 2005, resulted in making services accessibleto many who might otherwise have not received treatment. The review after completion of