What we are proud of

24 years on :

• Well over 550,000 blind people have had their sight restored and countless others prevented from going blind. But we are prouder of the fact that each patient was treated as a person requiring respect and the highest quality of care, regardless of their economic situation. We know this because we still spend a huge amount of time amongst the Bihari teams and out in the villages amongst patients.

• Every hospital with whom we work is independently run. Each receives a different level of support. However, there is no competition, rather co-operation between them. All are working towards the same aim.

• We have an unrivalled overview of the state’s eye services. So we are the first port of call for any Bihari eye doctor returning to work in a small town or rural area.

• Solar power runs five of our partner hospitals. Water conservation schemes are planned at others. Small incision cataract surgery (SICS), an operation pioneered in India, is still the surgery of choice for cataract patients. Not only is this a safe, cheap and highly effective operation, it is less wasteful a procedure than phaco-emulsification. This latter operation is chosen by other Trust hospitals (and of course private practitioners) because they can charge more from the patient or claim back more from insurance schemes. Phaco has 2.5 times the carbon footprint of SICS.
  'SICS is a game changer. It is simple, cheap and almost unbelievably impactful. We in the UK have so much to learn from innovative pioneers in India.'
  UK Professor of Ophthalmology Philip Bloom.