The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) says it will continue to create awareness and engage governments on reducing bottlenecks that impede patients’ access to quality eye care.
Dr Adetunji Adenekan, Chairman, NMA Lagos Zone, made the assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in commemoration of the World Glaucoma Week on Tuesday in Lagos.
World Glaucoma Week (WGW) is a global initiative of the World Glaucoma Association (WGA) to raise awareness on glaucoma and contribute to sight preservation.
WGW which takes place from March 6 to 12, seeks to alert the public to have regular eye and optic nerve checks in order to detect glaucoma as early as possible.
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can cause vision loss and blindness by damaging the optic nerve at the back of the eye.
Adenekan, a Consultant Ophthalmologist, said that NMA would always support policies that ease the burden of healthcare on the patients.
According to him, NMA will always create awareness, advocate for resolution of issues as it relates to eye healthcare and policy formulation that will enhance quality of life of citizens.
“When you are talking about universal health coverage, you are talking about eye health because you need to include eye health in it.
“Also, we are talking about patient centred care; you examine a patient and know what he or she needs, a patient who has glaucoma may have other diseases.
“It would be good if the patient can access all the services in the same health facility without jumping from one hospital to another,” he said.
Adenekan called for establishment of more specialised eye centres where robust intervention and care for eye patients would be done.
He appealed to the government to include glaucoma medication on the essential drug lists and ensure the health insurance schemes operate effectively to care for glaucoma patients.
“We need to evolve policies that would assist to reduce the cost of importation of these drugs, as the ripple effect of high cost of drugs falls on the patients who largely pay out-of-pocket.
“Some glaucoma patients are placed on two or three eye drops to control their intraocular pressure and the monthly cost of these eye drops is a burden to most of them,” he said.
According to him, data from the Nigeria National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey show that Nigeria has a high prevalence of glaucoma which is largely open-angle glaucoma.
Adenekan said that most people with glaucoma had no early symptoms or pain.
He advised the public to visit an eye doctor regularly so they can diagnose and treat glaucoma before it leads to vision loss.
