The Member of Parliament (MP) for Jomoro, Mr Paul Essien has organized free eye surgery for 72 residents in his constituency.
This follows a free eye screening exercise for the residents somewhere in December last year during which some were identified to have serious eye problems.
The exercise was sponsored by Mr Essien at a cost of GH¢137,000 and undertaken by Friends Eye Center,a Tamale-based hospital in conjunction with Unite For Sight, a Non-Governmental Organization(NGO) based in Connecticut in the United States of America with ancillary staff from the Global Impact Fellow in the USA.
Mr Essien said the health care needs of the people were on top of his agenda and that he would continue to seek their interest to keep them physically fit.
As part of his commitment towards affordable health care delivery, work would be completed on three health centers at Tikobo No.1, Elubo and Samenye by the end of the year.
The MP assured the people that the exercise would not be a nine day wonder, adding that another eye screening and surgical exercises would be organized by the end of December 2018, to support persons who want to access eye care in the area.
The Medical Director of the Friends Eye Center and an Opthalmologist, Dr Seth Wanye identified cataract and pterygium as major conditions which usually affected the eye and degenerates into glaucoma.
He told the media that the eye lenses of some of the patients had to be removed and replaced with another layer of the eye and provided them with eye drops to avoid complications leading to blindness.
Dr Wanye said that severe visual impairment was a major cause of the high eye diseases in the country leading to cataract blindness according to the World Health Organization (WHO) projected figure of 75%.
He said a number of opthamologists were in the Southern sector of Ghana but most patients were not aware and appealed to the Secretariat at the Ghana Health Services to develop a database to direct patients where to access eye care services.
He lauded the MP for the sponsorship since a patient would have paid US$80 for an eye test and US$600 for an eye surgery at the hospital.
A Volunteer from the Global Impact Fellow in the USA, Margee Lenze assured eye patients that blindness was preventable if only they sought medical attention very early.
GNA
