30 April 2009
Scores of elderly Transkei residents will have their sight restored this
week thanks to visiting Tunisian doctors, the Eastern Cape health department
said on wednesday.
Spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the doctors, in the country in terms of an
agreement between the South African and Tunisian governments, had set up at the
St Barnabas hospital in Libode.
Since they began working on Sunday, they had assessed 380 patients and
operated on 46. The operations would continue, at a rate of between 20 and 30 a
day, to Friday, Kupelo said. The doctors were concentrating on the removal of
cataracts, problem which affected elderly people. The operation could bring
about an immediate and dramatic improvement in vision, Kupelo said. âOne of
these elderly people yesterday was very excited. She shouted that she needs not
to be led by anyone because she could see for herself,â he said.
The doctors were being assisted by three department nurses. It was their
third visit to the province, following stints at Butterworth in 2006 and
Sterkspruit last year.
People were being bussed in to St Barnabas from all over the OR Tambo
municipal region, Kupelo said. The department was paying for the doctors'
travel and accommodation costs, which would probably amount to some R350
000.
The operations were being done free of charge to the patients. In the
private sector, cataract removal would cost about R10 000. He said there was a
âhuge backlogâ of cataract sufferers in the Transkei.
Issued by: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
30 April 2009
Source: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecdoh.gov.za)
