By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Staff Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
MORE than 100 cataract patients will receive free eye surgery as the project enabling local partnership with a team of doctors and nurses from China begins this week.
The surgeries will be performed in the newly renovated and expanded eye wing at the Princess Margaret Hospital, featuring state-of-the-art surgical equipment, instruments, supplies and medicines that have been donated by the Chinese government.
The total value of the donation is $578,000, according to Health Minister Dr Perry Gomez, who said he hoped that the landmark project will become a template for future collaboration between the two countries.
The Bright Journey Cataract Surgery Project begins on Thursday, and 154 patients were said to have been scheduled.
The Chinese medical team is from Peking University First Hospital.
Dr Gomez said: “The challenges we face in public healthcare are often global challenges where the expertise and resources of nations and regions can be brought to bear across borders to improve the lives and health of ordinary citizens.
Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China Yuan Guisen pointed to the high per capita rate of cataract patients in the Bahamas, which he said was 20,000 by comparison to China’s 5,000.
The landmark project will continue until May 12.
Comments
banker 10 years, 6 months ago
Says a lot about Bahamian eye doctors. We need to accept charity for people to have good vision. Maybe the improved vision will lead to better political choices.
TalRussell 10 years, 6 months ago
Comrade Banker we can fight our local political battles but let's wait until after MORE than 100 cataract patients blind eyes have been restored by the goodwill team of visiting Chinese doctors.
BahamianAway 10 years, 6 months ago
And we continue to burrow ourselves deeper and deeper into Chinese debt. No worries we soon be a Trinidad...over a zillion people and more than half with Chinese ancestry. The average Bahamian will no longer be just black....
TheMadHatter 10 years, 6 months ago
So history will reveal, in the not too far off future, that the Bahamas was sold out for a hotel, a sports stadium, and some cataract surgeries.
Grandpa, what happened to my Bahamas?
Child, we did sell all da Bahamas to dem Chinamans, so we could afford to buy baby food to feed ya.
Now ya dun grow up right? Don't you remember when ya daddy needed one job to Cable Beach so he could pay BEC, and all dat. And not only you, remember ya gats 5 bruddas and 3 sistas needed feedin too.
*TheMadHatter
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