Berhampur, Sept. 7: A private eye hospital in Samarjhola village plans to provide quality eye care at free of cost to the residents of Ganjam and surrounding districts.

The Sankara Eye Hospital will launch its first eye camp at Hinjili on Gandhi Jayanti on October 2.

"The camp will be organised phase-wise in Ganjam and neighbouring districts. We will select some patients for their eye treatment at no cost," said S Visvanathan, secretary and trustee of the Sankara Eye Hospital, Chennai.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the hospital on June 11 last year. The 150-bed super specialty eye care hospital, 17km from Behrampur, was built across 4.8 acres at a cost of Rs 42.3 crore.

Tata Steel provided the fund for the construction of the hospital.

Equipment worth Rs 5 crore was also purchased.

"The operation theatre was opened on August 16 last year. From August 17 to till date we performed 37 eye surgeries. But it was a paid service. Now, we can have 20 surgeries a day," said S. Visvanathan.

The objective of the hospital is to address curable blindness with special focus on the rural population.

The hospital aims to reach out to the rural population through its community ophthalmology programme. It also plans to provide quality eye treatment to everyone regardless of their socio-economic status, said chief executive officer of the hospital Arabinda Mohanty.

Medical director, Sankara Eye Hospital, Samarjhola, Sudeep Das said: "We have the most technologically advanced and comprehensive eye care system here. We have Lenstar, which is the most accurate method of calculating the intraocular lens power, Humphrey Visual Field for evaluation of glaucoma, corneal topography for evaluation of cornea, fluorescein angiography, B-Scan, non-contact tonometer, A-Scan, pachymetry for diagnostic options.

"The surgical equipment include latest operating microscopes, latest phacoemulsification systems for cataract surgery, latest equipment from Geuder for posterior segment surgery and many more."