Regional eye care survey: An essential prerequisite for an overall betterment of eye care services

India is a vast country with varied culture, practices, limitations, and challenges. This is applicable to the field of eye care services too. More than 86% of the blindness is among persons aged 50 years and above, and 80% of this blindness is avoidable.[1,2]

Since our aim is to reduce the burden of avoidable blindness, the foremost prerequisite would be to understand broadly the present scenario of eye care services, which should be from awareness regarding eye problems and eye care services among the general population to the availability of the same in a particular area. A great initiative has been taken by Das T et al. in their article, “Mumbai metropolitan region eye care facility survey. Mumbai Eye Disease Study (MEDiS) Report # 1,”[3] which helps us to understand the awareness of various eye problems and availability of eye care services among the general population. This gives us an insight as to how and where to start modifying our eye care system, which is, in fact, the first step to be taken. A lot of other parameters have been analyzed in the article MEDiS, like distribution of eye care facilities in a particular geographic area and cost of eye care service – whether they are similar in all subareas; demand and supply – whether it is appropriate and similar in all areas; availability of various insurances and their utilization; data on educational and economic background; and so on. All of these are helpful in planning strategies for better eye care service. Most importantly, the authors have looked into the working hours of the doctors, which gives a clue to the general public regarding the nonavailability of eye care services. This definitely helps in avoiding unnecessary travel and waiting. This kind of survey also helps in understanding the present scenario of various socioeconomic backgrounds or strata – Which socioeconomic strata is relatively more aware of eye problems and availability of eye care facilities and the various health insurances that may be applicable to them? Surprisingly, provisions for pediatric ophthalmology (children constitute about one-third of the total population in India according to the latest census) and uvea and oncology were low. This was in spite of the fact that stand-alone large eye care facilities were 70% in MEDiS. With the rise in ocular problems in children, especially refractive error (myopia), retinopathy of prematurity, and so on, it is mandatory that more services are provided in this subspecialty to the general public. There is also lack of awareness about annual eye examination, which is especially important in detection and prevention of blinding diseases like glaucoma.

This kind of survey can be implemented in other parts of the country to enable better understanding of the present status of eye care services, so that better facilities can be delivered to common people at an affordable cost and in a most convenient way. This is no doubt a tedious task but nevertheless worthwhile. We have to ensure that there is a fairly equal distribution of eye care services in a particular geographic area. This kind of survey brings out the importance of mobile eye care units or systems to deliver the facilities to those areas which do not have access for the same or to people who cannot travel far to seek treatment.