QEH’s vision is for better eye care

by Anesta Henry

The Ophthalmology Department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is looking at treating patients offsite
in the near future.

However, head of the department Dr Sherwin Benskin says advanced technology is needed to achieve that goal which will take eye treatment in Barbados to a higher level.

He spoke about the tele-ophthalmology initiative during a brief handing over ceremony of two Acer laptop computers by The Kiwanis Club of Barbados South to the Department.

“What we aim to do is to expand the services of the eye department. And patients will no longer be required to come to the eye department. We will be able to examine a patient from a distant polyclinic or even overseas and bring our expertise closer to the population so to speak,” Dr Benskin said.

“Now, in order to do that, you can imagine that we need to use computers and the Internet to access the information. We also need a forum to store the information and this is where electronic medical records come in and computers.

So, it is very important that we have computers and a proper network system and also camera systems to monitor the patients and transmit the data and photographs etc.,” added Dr Benskin, who expressed gratitude to all those who contributed to making the laptop donation possible.

Meanwhile, President of the Kiwanis Club of Barbados South St Claire Phillips explained that following a meeting with the heads of the Ophthalmology Department, the club began efforts to raise funds to purchase the computers.

He said the Ophthalmology Department had also indicated a retinal camera was needed and the club was working towards raising funds to make that purchase.

Phillips said the general public, Andrew Pilgrim and Associates firm, and Republic Bank assisted in providing funding to assist with the project.

“To date, we have been fortunate also to collaborate with Online Consultancies who are the agents for Acer computers and they have also agreed that they will go into a contract where they will service those computers if anything should go wrong. And I know that Dr Benskin will make sure very little goes wrong,” Phillips said.

“We are also looking to continue this project for as long as we can to equip the polyclinics so that so many people wouldn’t have to come to the polyclinics. The system is they want to use the Internet and get eye care to a wider spectrum of persons.”

anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb