Reps to push for eye care centres in Nigeria

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Okezie Kalu, has said that the House will amend the National Eye Care Centre Act to provide for the establishment of more centres across the country.

He stated this when he received the executives of the Nigerian Optometric Association (NOA) led by their President, Dr Chimeziri Anderson, who paid him a courtesy call over the weekend.

He also said that there was a need for more institutions to train more professionals in the field, adding that optometrists should be included in the primary healthcare services in rural communities.

He further said, “I agree with you that the laws around our eye care are obsolete. Society is dynamic; so are the problems. Laws are made to be solutions. Laws are made not to be stimulators of problems.

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“The Primary Healthcare Act is not sufficient and I agree with you. Gone are the days when issues about the eyes were considered tertiary. They are primary and should be treated as such if the needed health impact that this administration seeks to achieve must be achieved in the Renewed Hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu who is seeking for health security in our country.

“We will go for the amendment of the National Eye Centre Act. We are going to put mechanisms in place to push for the establishment of a national eye centre. So, we will go for the amendment of the National Eye Centre Act to include Abia.”