A pilot study by the RP Center of All India Institute of Medical Sciences has increased the concern of Delhiites. About 30 percent of the people living in the capital are facing eye problems and the most important thing is that even children are not untouched by it. The level of vision in the eyes of school going children is continuously falling and all these people are in urgent need of glasses.

The report of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Center for Ophthalmic Sciences says that about 30 percent of the people in Delhi need glasses due to refractive error. This is a condition in which a person has difficulty in seeing clearly.

Sharing the data of the study, Dr. Praveen Vashishtha, Professor and Head of the Department of Community Ophthalmology, said that these figures show how common vision-related problems have become in Delhi. According to the study, the problem is highest in people above 50 years of age, out of which about 70% people need glasses to see clearly.

He further says that this problem is not limited only to the elderly. About 20 percent of school children also need glasses, which is increasing the concern about eye health at an early age. However, there are a large number of people who are neither getting their glasses checked on time nor wearing them adequately.

There are enough doctors but less examiners.
Professor Vashishtha said that the number of Ophthalmologists in Delhi is good but a major shortcoming is that the number of Optometrists who test vision is much less than required. A person goes to an ophthalmologist only when he has any eye problem because he treats eye diseases. Whereas optometrists examine the eyes and write down the number of glasses, hence optometrists are very important for solving problems like refractive error.

Dr. Vashishtha says that about 249 institutions provide eye care services in Delhi, most of which are in the private sector. There are about 1,085 ophthalmologists and about 489 optometrists present in the city.

Experts are below WHO standards

He said that according to WHO guidelines, there should be at least one optometrist for every 50,000 people, but Delhi has not yet reached this target.

Eye services are limited even in primary health facilities here. There are about 270 Ayushman Arogya Mandir centers in Delhi, but eye care services are available only at about 50 of these centres.

In such a situation, it is necessary to increase the facility of regular eye check-up and increase the number of trained optometrists. So that vision problems can be detected early in children and the elderly and more people can get glasses on time.