The Upper East Regional Hospital has over the years lacked key critical care units, facilities, and specialists leading to people having to travel out for such services. In the area of eye care services, the reverse is the case as people from other parts of Ghana’s north will be trouping to the regional hospital following the establishment of a vision center at the facility.
With the new vision center established at a cost of 540,000 cedis with support from Vision Action, individuals in the region requiring medicated glasses to aid in their vision will no longer have to travel out of Upper East or wait for weeks for same.
The center seeks to reduce the cost and time barriers in getting glasses and ensures convenience for clients.
In a matter of minutes, one can easily get his or her glasses which offers more convenience than having to travel outside for such clearance.
Speaking Tuesday, July 4, 2023, during the official inauguration of the state-of-the-art vision center, the resident Optometrist, Dr. John Nyarko, said the absence of the facility in the past made about 10 opticians virtually redundant since they could not practice.
He, therefore, finds the Vision Center not only useful to the opticians who now practice their trade but also a great chance to help improve the vision of residents with convenience and reduced cost.
Dr. Nyarko, who noted that the facility could serve the entirety of Ghana’s also, expressed gratitude for the establishment of the vision center at the facility.
“So they decided to help us get a vision center where people will not have to wait several weeks for their spectacles to be fitted and then opticians in the region will get to do what their job description tells them to do. Because we have a lot of opticians here, when they get posted, they just get reassigned to check vision and do other jobs in their eye clinic. Some get rusted over the years. So with these further engagements, the regional hospital bought into the idea of the NGO, currently named Vision Action to set up the vision center over here to serve the needs of the people in the region. North East does not have a vision Center. I think Northern Region doesn’t have one. So basically this vision Center might serve the whole of the northern part of Ghana.
Yes. With regards to the Ghana Health Service, the private sector, I do not have much information. So that is the story now. It’s a very happy one. I’m very happy. As I said at the commissioning ceremony, it’s a dream come true to see opticians get posted and do what they’re supposed to do, and then make sure that people don’t have to wait several weeks to get their spectacles fitted. At some point, people have to wait as much as two weeks and some take one month to get their spectacles done for them, and it was a major concern.” He observed
Speaking prior to the official unveiling, the Country Director of Vision Action, Robert Alibo, said they have reached an agreement to help operationalize the facility for the next five years by which time, the hospital would be expected to be in a position to sustain the operationalization of the facility.
He is, however, urging the hospital to work to get an ophthalmologist
