Outreach Eye Camps in Ghana

During late May, a six-day surgical visit to HCP's partner in Kumasi, Ghana, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, KATH, provided 130 life changing eye surgeries - including 50 pediatric cases. The KATH Eye Center has increased its outreach and care since the February inauguration of the new surgical facility that has three dedicated operating rooms for eye surgery. KATH is the second largest hospital in Ghana and is a referral center for the Ashanti region and also treats patients from Burkina Faso, Cote D'Ivoire and the Republic of Togo. Partners from the University of Utah's John A. Moran Eye Center, the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical College collaborated last month to provide ongoing mentorship to KATH's ophthalmic staff comprised of seven ophthalmologists, four ophthalmology residents, nurses and medical students.The KATH Eye Center has specialists in cornea, glaucoma, pediatrics, retina and oculoplastics. With HCP donor support, KATH performs routine screenings of patients in the surrounding regions to either provide care on site or refer to KATH. 

The formal inauguration of the Eye Center at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, Ghana, took place on Tuesday, February 25. The event was well-attended by Ghanaian dignitaries, project partners and members of the press.

Ghana’s Minister of Health, Ms. Sherry Ayittey, saluted the various partners for their contribution to the facility and said she found it refreshing that the facility would train more eye care professionals to overcome the distribution imbalance of eye care personnel in Ghana. The country has a population of 24 million with only 74 ophthalmologists concentrated in the urban areas with an estimated 240,000 blind.

To mark the facility’s completion, KATH organized a cataract and cornea surgical workshop in the days leading up to the inauguration. KATH’s clinical team managed multiple screening events in three different districts to draw patients from nine communities. Patients were bussed to the new facility for surgery and then recovered in the new patient wards. In total, 160 cataract surgeries (including 20 patients who were bilaterally blind) and six corneal transplant surgeries were provided. With the new facility complete KATH anticipates replicating this type of outreach event at least once a month in an effort to increase patient examinations and surgical volume.