Ministry of Health Enhances Early Detection Efforts for Childhood Eye Conditions

The Ministry of Health is pushing to ensure that no child receives their eye disease or eye allergy diagnosis too late.

That’s why Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George is encouraging parents to take advantage of the screening programme.

He gave that encouragement yesterday at the Ministry of Education, Elsie Payne Complex, Constitution Road, where they were presented with four vision acuity charts.

“Screening is usually a low-cost intervention that has high outputs, and we hope that this will redound to children not being diagnosed too late with respect to refractory eye disease, squint, or eye allergies.

“The Ministry of Health is really happy with this kind of donation. We will use it to the best of our ability to make sure that they are kept safe and that it is used to support thousands of children in the country,” George said.

The donation which was valued at $28 000, followed the revitalisation and expansion of the screening programme, last year.

“In 2023, the National Eye Care Committee was revitalised and re-energised under the leadership of Dr Ingrid Cumberbatch who is our chair. Their purpose was to identify strategies to combat eye disease through the life course of those young, middleaged, and elderly.

“That committee is very active at the moment and consists of persons from the private sector, primary care, and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, we have also relationships with The University of West Indies and paediatricians.

Small pilot

They are also looking at tertiary care improvement, rehabilitative care, human resource development, access to equipment and supplies, and the promotion of research and the embracing of technologies which affect eye disease,” George said.

He also said they introduced screening for ten to 12-year-olds, persons entering school.

“Information from a small pilot indicated that as many as 20 per cent of those children had some form of refractory error or eye allergy. The committee continued its work, and now we are extending the programme to the age group three to five-year-olds, where we will have screening using the visual acuity monitors.

“Fortunately more polyclinics have come on board. We have Branford Taitt Polyclinic, the Randall Phillips Polyclinic, and the Eunice Gibson Polyclinic who joined Winston Scott Polyclinic in making sure that young children are screened early for eye disease,” he added.

Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer Bradshaw, chair of the National Eye Care committee Cumberbatch, as well as paediatric phthalmologist David Callender who did a demonstration attended the handing over event.