Media Release
Udupi, Nov 13: The Paediatric Ophthalmology Clinic and Express Ophthalmology Clinic on Friday were inaugurated at Kasturba Medical College Hospital in Manipal.
Dr Sharath Kumar Rao, dean of KMC inaugurated the Paediatric Ophthalmology Clinic while C G Muthana, chief operating officer, Kasturba Hospital, Manipal inaugurated the Express Ophthalmology Clinic. Dr Avinash Shetty, medical superintendent, Dr Chiranjoy Mukhopdyay, Dr Padmaraj Hegde and Dr Sulatha Bhandary, Professor and head of the department of Ophthalmology, were present.
After the inauguration, Dr Sharath said, "Disease and diagnosis of children are entirely different from adults. So it is important that children be treated differently. Worldwide many subspecialties for paediatric patients are coming, even in ophthalmology. It is good that it is starting in Kasturba Hospital also. I hope it will be useful for paediatric patients.
The Ophthalmology department of Kasturba Medical College and Hospital, Manipal will begin Paediatric Ophthalmology Clinic to provide exclusive comprehensive ophthalmology consultancy services for children. In order to make it more convenient for the parents and children, the clinic is scheduled to run on a school holiday and will function every Saturday afternoon from 1.30 pm to 4.30 pm (except on third Saturday). Treatment of eye diseases in children like refractive errors, squint, cataract and lazy eye will be provided. Referral to other speciality clinics such as cornea, retina or glaucoma will be done if needed. Contrary to popular belief, even children might need glasses from a very young age for better vision. Presence of squint, which many people falsely believe to be a sign of luck, can interfere with vision development. Hence any child who complains of difficulty in seeing distant objects, difficulty in reading, squeezing of eyes or excessive rubbing and squinting should be shown to an ophthalmologist. The paediatric ophthalmology clinic hopes to provide a holistic approach to the management of eye diseases in children.
As there was a growing demand from the patients to have a fast track clinic, an express clinic is starting. The express clinic will be on an appointment basis only. The aim of this express clinic is to provide quality consultation services with reduced waiting time for common ailments such as eye irritation, redness of eyes (eye discharge) and change of glasses/retina evaluation without dilatation etc. The examination will include vision assessment, comprehensive eye examination without dilatation of the pupil. (Detailed workup for cataract/glaucoma or retinal diseases is not included). For an appointment please call: 0820 2923780.