What is hospital strengthening, and why is it important?

Entrance of Siliguri Greater Lions Eye Hospital
Written by Ashley Anderson, published on March 1, 2021 Give the Gift of Sight

One of the key pillars of our work is hospital strengthening. This means that we collaborate with hospital and government partners to ensure that hospitals have the resources necessary to provide quality eye health care. Our partner hospitals are identified based on the eye health needs of the areas they serve, and then they then go through a thorough vetting process to ensure suitability. Although we do work with hospitals to confirm that adequate facilities, equipment and supplies are available, the largest aspect of our hospital strengthening is training. In 2020 alone, we trained 139 people to provide eye health care. This included training primary health care workers in eye care and training ophthalmologists and eye health technicians in regions where these roles are in high demand.  

Read a testimony from an Operation Eyesight-trained Vision Technician: 

After decades of success using this method, we have been invited by ministries of health to present it as a proven way of addressing gaps in current eye health offerings in a number of countries, including Zimbabwe, Malawi, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. After seeing the impact of our programs on the lives of their citizens, we have been asked by the governments of Zambia and Arunachal Pradesh state in India to replicate our model in other parts of the country/state. In doing so, we share the principles of our model while still leaving room for adaptation to best meet local eye health needs and to successfully operate in the local cultural context. We also provide input on governments’ national eye health strategies, advocating for the inclusion of eye health in primary health care programs. This is a critical component of achieving universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals

Read about a day in the life of an Operation Eyesight program officer: 

As a result of longstanding, trusting relationships that we have with our partners and with local ministries of health, we were able to adapt our approach quickly at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our locally-based program teams quickly mobilized to help our partners address the immediate concerns caused by the pandemic. This included reaching out to communities to provide clean water, safety supplies and education to help them protect their families and prevent the spread of the virus. These efforts helped prevent our partner hospitals from becoming overwhelmed, giving them support to help them get back to a state where they are facilitating better health outcomes, including eye health, for their citizens. The flexibility shown by our international team demonstrated that we have an important role to play to help our hospital partners manage health risks as they emerge, even those unrelated to eye health. 

COVID-19 proved that access to health care and robust health systems are more important now than ever. That’s why our focus this year and beyond is to continue our work to strengthen hospitals, establish vision centres and improve access to eye health care. Our work would not be possible without support from our generous donors. Donate today to help us support our hospital partners and eliminate avoidable blindness. – For All the World To See!