Gilgit-Baltistan Eye Hospital

The Gilgit Eye Hospital in mountainous Northern Areas of Pakistan was opened in 1995 by Vision International Pakistan. The hospital has an established reputation for quality eye care and excellence of service from its eye hospital, blind school & community rehabilitation program.

  

 Scott Dumbletons involvement first started in 1997 when as a newly graduated optometrist he visited the hospital. Tracey first met Scott in 1999 when she was backpacking through Pakistan, she is an ophthalmic nurse. Scott was appointed project director of the hospital in 2006 which has expanded his role to deal with the administration of running the hospital and fundraising. Scott also works in the clinic seeing patients and training local staff. Tracey works with the operation theatre team maintaining and improving the surgical department, staff training and assisting with operations.

 The most a patient would pay for a cataract operation is about 4,500 rupees ($110 NZ) if they can afford it. If they are genuinely poor and cannot afford surgery or medicine costs the local staff assess their situation and give a reduction of fees according to what they can afford; if they are in absolute poverty, it’s done for free, if it is relative poverty then somewhere in the middle. This compares to $400+ NZ if they take the 20 hour bus ride down to Rawalpindi. Local GP’s and village health workers from all over northern Pakistan refer patients for treatment, patients often traveling considerable distance. It deals with all the extremes in eye disease – with trauma, infections, cataracts, allergies and refractive eye sight problems. Surgeries are predominantly cataract and its other surgical procedures are trauma (emergencies), glaucoma pressure reducing procedures, trachoma related eyelid surgery and blocked tear duct reconstruction surgeries (DCR’s). The hospital has a dedicated team of almost 30 local staff, highly motivated and well trained. Annually the team can examine over 8000 patients in clinics and perform surgeries. None of the expatriate staff associated with the hospital receive any financial income or allowance from the hospital. The major donors are the Christian Blind Mission and Earth Mission, a US-based charitable organisation.

For more information and details of the projects click here 

 

At Gilgit Eye Hospital we have the privilege of making the blind see through simple cataract surgery. These surgeries have a great multiplier effect when it comes to the positive impacts on a patient’s life. Being able to see again brings a rediscovered freedom to daily living that touches upon every aspect of that patient’s life. Seeing again allows patients to be more economically, socially and relationally active than they were pre-surgery.

At Gilgit Eye Hospital, while we primarily perform cataract surgeries, other conditions we treat are:

•     Glaucoma

•     Pterygium, also known as surfer’s eye

•     Ptosis, the drooping or falling of the upper or lower eyelid

•     Trachoma

•     Corneal ulceration

•     Refractive error

 In addition to eye surgery the hospital affords many patients the joy of improved vision through medicines and eye glasses. We provide a full eye care service including outpatient care, medicines, refraction and provision of spectacles as well as being involved in eye health education and community outreach.

When it comes to treating patients we look to take broader public health approach through educating patients when they come through our doors about some of the most common eye health complaints, how they can be avoided and if not avoided, treated. Not only this, we find that patients become educators in their own families and communities, too.

During the spring and summer months Vision International Pakistan runs screening camps in isolated mountain communities as part of our outreach and community intervention programme. By taking our services to remote areas we make primary level eye health care more accessible to those who experience the most barriers in accessing it.

Our screening camps run over three to four days with all of the equipment necessary to deliver an eye clinic service, including medicines and spectacles. We can see more than 500 patients at one of our screening camps. Around one in five patients at an eye camp will be referred to Gilgit Eye Hospital for further treatment. In addition to remote-area screening camps we also screen children in local schools for their vision and eye health, providing medicines or glasses if needed.

If you would like to support the work of Vision International Pakistan, you can use a debit or credit card to make a one-off donation using your debit or credit card or Paypal account.

All international banking transactions cost money. As such X% of your donation will cover the administrative and transaction costs involved in donating to our work while the remainder will go directly and completely to carrying out the work of Vision International Pakistan.

Cover the cost of eye surgery for someone who can’t afford it, $70
Provide diesel for generators for one month to keep us going when we have no electricity, which is most of the day in the autumn and winter months, US$150
Run a four-day remote-area eye health screening camp, $350
Help us purchase new hospital equipment, $1,000
Contribute to half salary for ophthalmologist, $9,600

Send us an email: info@visioninternational.pk
Phone: +92 (0)5811 455 517
Address: PO Box 549, Riverview Road, Gilgit 15100, Pakistan

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Vision International Pakistan operates in Pakistan under protocol 6 (26) / 89 NA IV with the Government of Pakistan and is a representative of Vision International Initiatives, England and Wales registered charity number 1143566.