Uggah (seventh right) presents the slit lamp equipment to Dr Chieng while Chioh (eighth right) and others look on.
KUCHING: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas has encouraged rural folk with cataract problems to visit their nearest clinic to get in touch with organisers of an outreach programme called Health Ministry’s Cataract Clinic or 4KM.
The programme offers screening and surgery free of charge at public hospitals.
“The outreach programme is run by the Health Ministry (Ophthalmology and Optometry Services) in collaboration with the Lions clubs since 2013. They make up the team of eye specialists to provide provide services for benefit of the rural people,” said Uggah who is also Bukit Saban assemblyman.
“They provide free facilities for those who have eye-related problems. Those in the interior are to go to the nearest clinic and get the clinic to link up with them (eye specialists),” he said after handing over a slit lamp equipment to the State Health Department witnessed by Lions Club of Kuching Metro (LCKM) members at his office in Petra Jaya yesterday.
“We will always support this programme and up to now, the team (4KM) has assisted 4,000 patients all over the state. In Betong alone, 527 patients have benefited from their services,” he pointed out.
According to LCKM Sight Preservation Awareness Action coordinator Andrew Chioh, Uggah has sponsored 36 needy patients from Betong, the venue of the first trial run of the programme held on Aug 23 to 25 2013.
A slit lamp, which costs around RM20,000, is a bio-microscope with a bright light used during an eye examination and is a key tool in determining the health of the eyes and detecting eye disease.
A nornal (non complication) cataract surgery may cost RM2,000 to RM3,000 at private hospitals but the cost is subsidised quite substantially at the public hospitals, said Chioh.
Some patients do get sponsorship from some NGOs but others may get free cataract surgery depending on their welfare status, he added.
The next outreach programme (the preliminary eye screening) will be held at Betong on Feb 3 to 7 next year.
This will be followed by Cataracts and Pterygium operations from Feb 21 to 23.
Also present at yesterday’s event was ophthalmologist Dr Chieng Lee Ling of the State Health Department.