By Matthew Denis
The Nigeria Opthalmic Nurses Association (NONA) has decried the dearth
of opthalmologists in the country.
The association said that Nigeria has only 600 opthalmologist and
about 4,000 optalmic nurses, which is grossly inadequate to meet the
eye problem demands of Nigerians.
The National Chairman of the association, Mr. Stephen Lamiya made this
known while speaking to newsmen on the sideline of the 33rd Annual
National Scientific Conference/ Free Eye Care Outreach held in Ilorin,
Kwara State on Tuesday.
According to him, “the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard is
one opthalmologist to 500 patients, but there is only about 600
ophthalmologists in the whole country and this number is inadequate.
“The ophthalmologists are very few in fact they are not up to 600 in
Nigeria, opthalmic nurses are not sufficient enough to meet the
demands of patients with eyes problems.
“We’re advocating that government should synergize with institutions
to establish training institutions for eyes and there should be
constant training and retraining of experts in this field, ” he added.
To promote healthy eyes and effective treatment in the country, he
called on the Federal Government to create more eye clinics.
He said, “Problem surrounding eye infection and treatment in Nigeria
is lack of manpower and insufficient government commitment.
“Though, there is gradual awareness by the common people to seek eye
treatment in the hospitals, but ignorance is a major setback for those
infected in the rural areas. Moreover, most of the eyes specialist
hospitals are located in the urban areas.
Lamiya stressed that most of the equipment for eye treatments are
imported and very expensive, urging government at all levels to
encourage local industries to produce such tools.
Speaking at the event The Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman
Abdulrazaq pledged to provide equipment for eye treatment in the
state.
The Governor who was represented by his Deputy, Kayode Alabi said the
state government will not relent in ensuring that the health of the
people is given priority through quality health services.
