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Health Ministry mulls ‘National Eye Bank’

Dec 25, 2015 News

…as demand increases for corneal transplants
As the demand for corneal transplants increases, the Ministry of Public Health is engaging in talks for the development of a National Eye Bank in 2016, along with legislation which will see tissues and organs being retrieved from dead bodies for the advancement of medicine.
Speaking to Kaieteur News yesterday, Minister George Norton revealed the ministry’s plans for the development of the bank, which he says will require little funding.
“A lot of patients have been benefitting from corneal transplants of recent at the Georgetown Public Hospital and we have noticed the success of these surgeries with our own local surgeons. And so in order for us to continue along this line, we are looking at the development of a National Eye Bank,” Norton said.
He stated further that it would not require a lot of infrastructure to develop.
“The development of such a bank would be cheap and tissue would be easily accessible and not just any tissue but fresh tissue,” he noted.
Presently, the hospital depends on overseas sources for donor tissue, which is very expensive.
Corneal transplants become necessary when a person’s corneas no longer allow light to enter the eye correctly because of scarring or disease. During the transplant – a procedure called a keratoplasty – a portion of the cornea is removed and replaced with a new section from a tissue donor.
Norton indicated that the formation of the bank could only function efficiently if the relatives of potential donors cooperate with the hospital. He said, therefore, it is important for legislation to be passed to allow for such tissues and other organs to be donated to persons in need.
He noted that there is a lot of potential donor tissue going to waste in the hospital’s mortuary. However, he stated that while some persons may want to donate their tissues and organs to science, many of their families would not approve of it.
“…but we are still evaluating such a legislation, even though it is not high on our agenda,” he added, stating that there many capable surgeons in Guyana to carry out such transplants.
So far the hospital has conducted over 15 corneal transplants within the year. This is an improvement, since transplants of this kind were not performed at the hospital for many years. Norton stated that the figures might be small, but there is a large number of persons suffering from eye diseases.
“It is not so much, but there have been improvements and we hope to improve upon those improvements,” he said.
The figures vary slightly at the Balwant Singh’s Hospital, where evaluations are being carried out for the development of a private eye bank. Several transplants were performed during 2014 and this year by the hospital’s Ophthalmologist Dr Neeraj Jain, who has also raised his voice for the development of such a bank.
Minster Norton was the first ophthalmologist to perform a cornea transplant in Guyana four years ago at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

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