President Muhammadu Buhari will on Thursday commission the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation Eye Hospital in Abuja.
The hospital which is managed by the renowned Aravind Eye Care System of India is run largely by a Nigerian team of 30 eye professionals who have recently undergone intensive training in India, Daily Trust learnt.
Briefing newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja, Jagdish Chanrai, Founder and Trustee of the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation (TCF) said about 60 per cent of the hospital’ s services would be provided free of charge to benefit the poor and marginalised communities while the rest would be at highly subsidized rate for those who could afford it.
“The hospital is expected to be self – sustaining in about four years time, ” he said.
Chanrai said the hospital which commenced in January this year has provided eye services to over 6, 400 patients and performed over 1000 eye surgeries, with about 850 of them provided free for the poor.
According to him, the hospital has the capacity to perform about 15, 000 surgeries per year and targeted towards gold standards in eye care services across Africa.
He said TCF Eye hospital also aims to be the premier ophthalmic training institute in Nigeria for both clinical and non clinical personnel to help eye care in Nigeria evolve as a self sustaining and thriving model , steered by Nigerian talent.
He said the foundation which was established by the Chanrai family in 1992 has touched the lives of 7.5 million Nigerians through projects across 32 states of the country.
Highlights of the event was a tour of the 54-bed capacity facility which the hospital said would be expanded to 100 beds in phase two.
The centre initially offers services for cataract, pterygium, glaucoma and will soon commence complex eye issues for Nigeria and other West African countries.
