Ghanaians suffering ‘avoidable’ blindness – Optometrists

The Ghana Optometric Association (GOA) has expressed concerns over the alarming cases of blindness among the Ghanaian populace.

According to the association, majority of eye conditions which result in total blindness would have been prevented if individuals access routine eye care services.

President of the Optometric Association, DSP Dr. Remi Ninkpe, speaking at the 5th General Meeting of the group in Ho at the weekend said eye conditions such as refractive errors could be managed with lenses, cataracts with surgery and glaucoma with appropriate medications.

He indicated that almost half of the over 200,000 visual impaired persons in the country would not have gotten to that situation if everyone was paying critical attention to their sight by undergoing periodic eyes checkup.

“You will marvel that, 44 percent of all the visually impaired people in Ghana would only need glasses and they will have solutions. So why should we as a nation sit aloof whiles our people suffer needless disabilities. We as individuals must make sure we take our sight issues as important as all other issues. We may also need to make that effort to be able to access vision care when the need arises,” DSP Dr. Ninkpe stated.

He also urged government to provide local health facilities with basic eye care facilities to make the service accessible to citizens, adding that, “We need to as a nation make our sight and vision count in our total healthcare needs; because, a nation that allows its people to go blind, is in itself a blind nation.”

The annual meeting brought together over 100 members of the Ghana Optometric Association from across the country to deliberate on the theme: ‘Optometry, surmounting challenges in Eyecare delivery.’

As part of the meeting, the association also undertook free eye screening exercise for over 2000 residents of Awudome-Tsito in the Ho West district to commemorate this year’s World Sight Day on Thursday, October 11, 2017.

Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, the Volta Regional Minister, in his speech entreated health care professionals including optometrists to keep to the tenets of their profession by always providing selfless services to the populace.

He said government was committed to the general wellbeing of citizens and as such would make every effort to address the challenges in the country’s health delivery system.