Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Oct 10: Inaugurated over two months back, the state-of-the-art Eye Bank at Government Medical College Jammu, dedicated to restoring sight to the corneal blind, is still not operational.
K Vijay Kumar, Advisor to Governor, had inaugurated the Eye Bank on July 22 this year, stating that it is equipped with all necessary equipments for Corneal Transplant procedures and will provide a full scope of services ranging from counseling for families, cornea/eye collection besides processing and distribution of corneas to the needy.
The Advisor had said that this Eye Bank will enable the hospital to provide life-changing surgeries and restore sight of many people- a significant step towards reducing corneal blindness in the State but, according to the official sources, the Eye Bank is still not operational though more than two months have passed when this facility was inaugurated with much fanfare.
Sources said the inauguration was just an eye wash as the authorities of GMC Jammu has failed to even secure registration of the Eye Bank, which is mandatory to make it functional and conducting cornea transplant surgeries. They said earlier the GMC Jammu got conditional registration for the Eye Bank two times but as the authorities failed to fulfill requisite formalities within prescribed time, registration was withdrawn.
“In the near past, the ophthalmologists of GMC Jammu performed several cornea transplantations in normal Operation Theatre (OT) of the department when they had conditional registration of the Eye Bank but since the concerned authorities withdrew the same, no cornea transplant has been done in the Hospital,” they said.
Sources said earlier the Hospital authorities were holding J&K Medical Supplies Corporation Limited (JKMSCL) responsible for inordinate delay in making Eye Bank functional, stating that Corporation has failed to procure required drugs, equipments and other necessary machinery for the bank but now when the Corporation has provided everything required for the facility, they still could not make the facility functional.
“The Eye Bank of the GMC Jammu could not be granted registration as a mandatory inspection of the facility by the experts is still pending,” source maintained. Elaborating more, they said the Eye Bank of the GMC Jammu could not be granted permanent registration till the infrastructure and equipment/machinery of the facility are inspected by a team of experts from another health institution where such a facility is already functional as it is a mandatory procedure.
They said fate of the registration of the facility now depends upon recommendation of the experts but even after inauguration of the facility, the Hospital authorities have failed to conduct inspection of the facility.
“Besides this, the facility is also awaiting installation of autoclaves which have been procured from a Chandigarh based company,” sources informed adding that it is also one of the causes behind failure of the GMC authorities to conduct inspection of the facility.
When contacted, Principal, GMC Jammu, Dr Sunanda Raina, said that everything is up to the mark in the Eye Bank and there is no shortcoming on their part except registration of the facility for which they have applied to Directorate of Health and now it is up to them when they arranged a mandatory inspection of the facility by the experts from some another eye bank to get nod for its registration.
On installation of autoclaves, Dr Sunanda said that a team of technicians of the company from which autoclaves have been procured, had recently paid a visit to the facility but it is not known to her whether they have installed the autoclaves or not.
“We have written to higher authorities of the department regarding the issue and they will take a final call when to arrange the inspection by whom,” said Dr Sameer Mattoo, Director Health, when asked about reasons of delay in conducting mandatory inspection of GMC Eye Bank.
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