KPJ Healthcare offers free cataract surgeries for underprivileged elderly patients

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 14 -- The KPJ Healthcare Berhad (KPJ Healthcare) and Rotary International District 3300 are offering free cataract surgeries to 20 underprivileged elderly patients under Eye-Care and Eye-Health Community Service Projects in conjunction with the World Sight Day 2021.

KPJ Healthcare Chief Corporate Officer Ariesza Noor said the project was implemented to drive awareness on eye care and eye health, in addition to offering solutions to those suffering from preventable blindness or vision problems due to cataracts.

She said the collaboration will see KPJ Healthcare providing the funding and medical aid for 20 surgeries to support Rotary District 3300 in their journey to address preventable blindness in the underprivileged.

“Our collaboration with Rotary District 3300 is in line with our efforts to partner with key stakeholders and create a positive impact to the communities which we operate in and this strategy, in turn, would offer a solution to our partner’s quest and has an impact on the lives of the beneficiaries, almost immediately,” she said in a statement here today.

Ariesza said they wanted to proactively empower patients to make the right decision by providing them with enough information so as to not delay treatments due to lack of awareness of the symptoms or even financial difficulties.

“I implore the public to reach out to us as we are able to assist them in safeguarding their sight to reduce the adverse impact of avoidable blindness,” she said.

Ariesza said for this collaboration to work, the Rotary District 3300 will be sourcing for eligible candidates via their extensive 1.2 million networks for patients to undergo these eye procedures, while the surgeries will be conducted at the soon-to-be-launched KPJ Ambulatory Care Centre (KACC) in Bandar Kinrara, which houses KPJ Centre For Sight’s fourth branch.

The KACC is a medical specialist outpatient centre attended by family medicine specialists, medical officers and sessional medical consultants from various specialities.

It aims to be the focal point for integrated healthcare facilities to complement KPJ Healthcare’s 28-chain of hospitals in Malaysia and abroad.

KPJ Healthcare, through KPJ Centre For Sight, has provided more than 350 free cataract surgeries to elderly patients since 2006.

Meanwhile, World Sight Day themed ‘Love Your Eyes’ is intended to bring global attention to blindness and vision impairment.

Statistics from the World Health Organisation shows that the number of people across all age groups who are visually impaired is estimated to be 295 million, of whom 43 million are blind.

Out of these, a huge 77 per cent is completely preventable or treatable.

This means that 33 million people are living with avoidable blindness and a further 260 million with avoidable visual impairment that is moderate to severe.

In Malaysia, approximately 1.2 per cent of the population experience blindness.

Applying these rates to the total Malaysian population of 32.7 million, an estimated 392,400 Malaysians are bilaterally blind.

-- BERNAMA