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Calls being made for resumption of UG’s Optometry Programme
An earnest call has been made to Pro-Chancellor of the University, Professor Prem Misir, to help push for the recommencement of the Optometry Programme at the institution.
The appeal was made by Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr. Emanuel Cummings, last Thursday during a farewell ceremony to mark the completion of a recent eye care mission between Guyana and the University of the West Indies.
Dr. Emanuel Cummings
The forum saw Dr. Sandra Wang-Harris, an Optometrist attached to the University of the West Indies (UWI), speaking of the importance of the profession, pointing out that these professionals are required to be comprehensive health workers.
“It does not mean that you collect people’s money and give them a pair of reading glasses, it means that you look at the body as a whole with the eyes as the window to the body…”
In the public health arena, she noted that those who opt to be optometrists also have a mandate to help with the prevention of blindness, which is not limited to just refraction.
“It is a wonderful profession to give the gift of sight, I think that almost every holy book speaks about the gift of sight, and I think we are privileged to be in this profession. It is not about the number of spectacles that we give but rather it is the amount of blindness that we are able to prevent…” she asserted.
UWI had started its Optometry programme three years ago, while Guyana had started its two years ago. However, due to some internal difficulties, the local programme has since been halted.
Support for the introduction of the programme came from agencies the likes of Guyana Eye Care and the Caribbean Society for the Blind, from which substantial funding was derived to aid with infrastructure in terms of new classroom spaces, a laboratory for optometry, and even new offices to support the programme.
According to Dr. Cummings, “I really wish that a wider cross-section of the University of Guyana community could have been here to hear the remarks of Dr Harris as she underscored the importance of Optometry and that is the reason that the Faculty of Health Sciences introduced such a programme in the first place.”
Directing his concerns to the Pro-Chancellor, Dr Cummings said that “I would wish that whatever has to be done will be done quickly, so that this programme could be re-advertised and get going again, because we consider this programme very close to our hearts and this is as important as any other programme.”
There are reports that the programme was halted due to a decision by the University to have the fee structure reviewed by Government, a development which obtains for the Pharmacy programme as well. However, there are reports that programmes which commenced subsequent to these programmes have not seen efforts being made to have the fees revised.
There are reports, too, that there was a conflict in terms of the fee which the University had programmed for and the fee approved by the government, which was given as $127,000. As a result, students accessing the Optometry programme were not being offered loans through the Ministry of Finance to access the programme.
“As far as I know this is being sorted out by the Government and it is being dealt with at the level of the University’s Council as well,” Dr Cummings had revealed last year.
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