Buganda signs five-year medical cooperation deal

Mar 30, 2016

Part of the MOU includes conducting monthly free eye screening camps at Bulange, Mengo.

In a bid to boost the health of the people living in Buganda, the kingdom has entered into a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Dr. Agarwal's Eye Hospital Kampala.

The kingdom health minister Dr. Ben Mukwaya said the move was to promote mutual cooperation in the area of health, with specific emphasis on eye care.

"We have a lot of challenges in this area of eye care as a number of people in the kingdom and the country are suffering from eye problems. The intervention is timely as it would reduce need especially in the rural areas and the urban poor communities," he said.

Mukwaya added that eye care has been a grey area and improvement will impart more on people's livelihood.

Part of the MOU includes conducting monthly free eye screening camps at Bulange, Mengo on every last Tuesday.

 The understanding also notes that in the period of five years the hospital will offer a total of 60 free eye surgeries to the people screened.

Both parties will also set up joint medical activities in areas of mutual interests, such as community outreach programs and medical missions.

The deal was signed at Bulange, Mengo on Tuesday by the kingdom health minister and Dr. Agarwal's eye hospital boss, witnessed by the kingdom speaker and other delegates from both parties.

The Agarwal's group of eye hospital executive director Sundaresan Rajagopalan said the gesture was in furtherance of the company's overall well-being of its stakeholders in the communities where it is operating.

 "The cooperation already commenced when the team from our hospital participated in Buganda Health Day and offered services during the two-day medical camp in Bukuya and Kasanda in the just concluded Kabaka tour in Singo county," he said.

"During this camp we screened over 300 patients, and offered that all the 46 patients identified for cataract surgery will receive the surgery free and 28 will receive eye glasses."

Dr. Kenneth Kagame, the hospital medical director said most of the patients recently screened were suffering from cataracts.

"Statistics from the world Health Organisation (WHO) show that over 200,000 people in Uganda are blind; this means that people with eye problems are more than that.

"So there is need to improve on the eye care and also keep them health," said Kagame, recommending regular eye checkup to avoid blindness.

"80% of the global visual loss is caused by failure to access medical care, especially in the poor communities" he said.

The kingdom Speaker, Nelson Kawalya, said the Government should address the shortage of eye-care staff, infrastructure and sustainable eye-care services.

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