BADAS-ORBIS Eye Care Project

The project, “Strengthening eye care capacity in the peripheral hospitals of Diabetic Association of Bangladesh with emphasis on diabetic retinopathy services”, is being implemented by the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh (BADAS) and ORBIS International since July 2008. The goal of the project is “to contribute to the prevention of blindness due to diabetic eye diseases, especially diabetic retinopathy, by establishing treatment services (including surgery) for the rural people of Bangladesh” and, at the same time, organizing primary and secondary preventive measures through community awareness, focused intervention and generation of appropriate tools for health promotion. The project started functioning in two districts i.e., in two sub-regional hospitals, namely Thakurgaon Swasthoseba Hospital (TSH) and Bogra Swasthoseba Hospital (BSH), and in two peripheral health care centers in Ranishonkail and Talara upazilas. There is a plan to extend its services Pabna gradually.
During the period of the project designed, it was estimated that 3.8 million people, or 4.8% of the country’s population, suffered from diabetes.  It was also estimated that a quarter of the diabetic patients, or almost a million people, suffered from diabetic retinopathy (DR).  DR services were scarce and no screening program for DR existed in the country. Our partner, Diabetic Association of Bangladesh (DAB) is the major provider in diabetes care, however, only about 15-20% of the estimated diabetic patients in the country have been brought under the regular health care services. All available services were concentrated in Dhaka and there was no DR Service for the population of 33 million living in the northern region of Bangladesh.  It was estimated that there were 1.5 million diabetic patients in that region, of whom about 500,000 were at any stage of DR. All these people needed to be examined for DR and had to be brought under counseling and treatment so as to prevent them from going blind.

Hospital Capacity Development
In this year, Bogra Swasthoseba Hospital is well equipped with skilled human resources and modern equipment to identify and treat Diabetic Eye Disease (DED) including general eye care services. One Consultant, 3 Nurses, 5 Junior Technical Assistants and 5 Diabetic and Eye Care Promoters (DECP) has recruited for smooth continuation of eye care services.
All the essential medical and surgical equipments & instruments along with office equipments were purchased and installed at the Bogra Swasthoseba Hospital (BSH) during the 3rd quarter of this year. A fruitful inaugural program was organized for the 2nd DR Center at the Bogra Swasthoseba Hospital (BSH) premises at the end of the 3rd quarter where High Officials of MOH&FW along with influential leaders of local professional associations, elected personnel of local government, local elites, and social-workers were present among others in the inaugural program. Every speaker expressed their gratitude about the ORBIS supported initiative for the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh. The hospital authority and local (Bogra) Diabetic Association organized free eye care screening camp before the inaugural program of BSH and there were huge gathering of patients came from neighbouring districts.

Human Resources Development
Training and orientation:
One of the major objectives of the project was to build the capacity of the partner hospitals for providing eye care services. The respective partner with the support from ORBIS arranged to provide required training/orientation to a significant number of staff (Ophthalmologists, MOs, Paramedics, Ophthalmic/Biomedical technicians, nurses Hospital Administrator, Managers, Senior Management team etc.) throughout the project period. During this year the total target of doctors to be trained were 22.
The respective consultant (Eye) of Bogra Swasthoseba Hospital (BSH) attended a two months long training course on Medial Retina during the first quarter of this year.  He also received Hands-on-Training on Medial Retina and LASER treatment during HBP which was held during October 03-07, 2010 and now he became more confident about the management of medical retina and also delivering LASER treatment to the respective patients.  The training received by the staff of the partner hospitals was reported to be useful and had helped them in their work. A total of 32 paramedic were trained against the targets of 20 for this year. The numbers of the trained paramedic increased as the partner able to provide training to more persons for the organizational need within the budget and also from their own resource. Moreover the consultant (Eye) of TSH has joined a 15-month long Fellowship training on Vitreo-Retina Sub-specialty in the beginning of the 3rd Quarter of 2010.