Outreach Eye Camps in Ghana

Since January, seven of HCP’s Ghanaian partners, including the National Cataract Outreach Program (NCOP), have provided over 3,200 sight-restoring surgeries for children and adults in all corners of Ghana from Keta to Adidome, and from Namong to Dunkwa.

Partner activity in multiple regions includes:

Dr. Bo Wiafe and his son Dr. Geoffrey Wiafe visited six separate sites in the first quarter working with local teams in the Western region (Tarkwa, Essikado), Central region (Assin Fosu, Saltpond), Eastern region (Asamankese), and Ashanti (Namong) region in addition to their own clinic, Watborg Eye Services.

Dr. Judith Simon in Tamale is serving patients in the Northern region - Tamale, Kintampo and Bolgatanga. Zobil, a six-year-old boy, was one of the patients from Bolgatanga. Before his surgery he was unable to see well, read, or attend school for over a year. Zobil lost his right eye due to trauma and developed a cataract in his left eye shortly after. He had cataract surgery on his left eye and was fitted with bifocal eyeglasses, which also serve as protective glasses. Zobil always has a big smile at his follow up appointments. He started school again and is doing well.

Dr. Seth Wanye of Friends Eye Center has served multiple sites in the Volta region (Keta, Aflao, Akatsi, Dzodze, Adidome) and continues to provide as many surgeries as possible before the rainy season begins.

To show its dedication to the program, GHS has committed three staff members - an optometrist, ophthalmic nurse and biomedical engineer - to participate in HCP-supported outreach activities to ensure adherence to standards developed by the NCOP founding committee members. The GHS staff members have also designed training modules to be offered to ophthalmic teams throughout the country in order to raise the quality of care.

HCP has invested in the success of the NCOP by purchasing cataract surgical kits that can be borrowed by ophthalmic teams for NCOP and HCP partner-organized cataract surgical interventions so multiple workstations are operational, while also providing specialized training opportunities to eye care personnel at all levels of ophthalmology.

NCOP is unique in that it brings together service providers from the public and private sectors - both of whom are eligible to be reimbursed for eye care services provided by the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP). Ideally, the reimbursements from NHIP will be higher than the cost of surgery through efficiencies. Any surplus is to be invested in activities that will enhance eye care such as purchasing ophthalmic supplies or repairing equipment. GHS is working hard to promote the program by visiting regional bureaus of health to ensure collaboration in all 16 regions and to help recuperate reimbursements from surgeries provided in the first three years of the program.

In addition to supporting outreach events arranged by NCOP, HCP has partnerships with 14 individual implementing partners from the public and private sectors. HCP collects data on post-operative visual acuity from outreach events to assess quality of service provided. We are pleased to report that each year the surgical quality improves and the amount of data collected increases.