Ophthalmic registrars trained

The 7th annual Registrars Community Eye Health Workshop was held at the CEHI Training Centre from 10 to 12 May 2011. The lead faculty was Dr Karin Lecuona, senior consultant in the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of Cape Town. She was assisted by four other consultants, including Prof Colin Cook and Anthony Murray. A total of 25 delegates participated in the workshop, comprising mostly clinicians working in eye care, of which 13 were ophthalmology registrars from 5 Medical Schools in South Africa. For the first time two delegates form Swaziland also participated.

A record number of delegates participated in the annual Community Eye Health workshop, aimed at introducing participants to key concepts in planning district eye services, based on the principles of Vision 2020: the Right to Sight. The Vision 2020 initiative is a WHO / IAPB initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness. At the end of the workshop, candidates presented plans for eye services in their districts, taking into account the proven diseases control strategies for blindness prevention. The workshop was well received by all participants, most of whom will commence work as ophthalmology consultants in the next year or two. It is hoped that they will apply these skills in their work in public eye health services.

Due to the incorporation of Community Eye Health in the curriculum of the Fellowship of College of Ophthalmologists of South Africa, the workshop will be open to consultant ophthalmologists from teaching hospitals as well.