Patients of the botched cataract operations arrive in Guwahati from Sankara Nethralaya

Guwahati, Oct. 18: A chastened Dispur has pruned its target for cataract operations in the wake of 34 patients losing an eye each to infection after surgery at the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology.

Sources said the botched operations not only opened Dispur’s eyes to the inadequacy of infrastructure at the institute but also made it realise the mistake of setting a big target of 75,000 free cataract surgeries in a year.

Delhi had asked Dispur to arrange for 45,000 free eye operations under the National Programme for Prevention of Blindness. A huge backlog and the addition of one lakh cases every year ostensibly prompted Dispur to increase the target by 30,000.

An inquiry committee, headed by P.K. Goswami, said Dispur pressured the under-equipped institute to meet an unrealistic target of 50-odd operations each day. But a senior official said the target would have been achieved but for the botched operations. “That forced the government to go slow and reduce the target.”

Dispur will write to the Centre about its decision to prune the target. “The state government will seek some more time to be ready with infrastructure and other facilities mentioned in the protocol for the National Programme for Prevention of Blindness and Vision 2020,” the official said.

A report published by the Union health and family welfare ministry states that Assam’s performance in terms of meeting the target for cataract surgeries has been dismal since 2002. Only 20,889 free cataract operations were conducted in 2002 and a mere 74 the next year. The number of operations, however, increased to 23,500 in 2004.

According to a 2003 survey, the prevalence of blindness in Assam is 3.05 per cent, the highest in the country. The national prevalence rate is 1.1 per cent. Delhi is aiming to reduce it to 0.8 per cent by 2007.

The health ministry report states that infrastructure for eye care is “weak” in Assam and the rest of the northeastern states.

The inquiry committee that probed the botched surgeries at the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology discovered that sterilisation norms were ignored while conducting operations at a feverish pace to meet the target set by Dispur. “Ventilation in the operation theatre was not properly sealed. Autoclaving was not done properly either,” the official said, quoting from the panel’s report.

When the air-conditioning system at the operation theatre malfunctioned on September 13, the door was kept open. This supposedly resulted in contamination of air and, consequently, eye infection set in. Since there is no online water sterilisation facility at the ophthalmology institute, the inquiry committee identified water contamination as another possible cause of infection. “If more such mistakes are committed, people’s faith in government-sponsored eye camps will be totally eroded,” an official said.