Health agency fails to meet annual target for free cataract operations
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post/Tangerang
With around 4,000 residents on the north coast of Tangerang regency suffering sight problems caused by cataracts every year, the regency health agency has failed to fulfill its goal of providing free-of-charge operations for 3,000 patients annually.
In the last three years, the agency -- in cooperation with the Indonesian Association of Eye Specialists (Perdami) and the Al- Qadr Hospital in Karawaci -- has only managed to provide operations for 875 cataract patients.
"It's disappointing because this figure is far less than our target," the agency's public health service director Lystia Wahyudi said.
She said that local people considered cataracts to be a normal problem among the elderly so that they ended up just ignored them. The situation was worsened with the financial and other constraints they faced as a result of harvest failures, drought, poor infrastructure and environmental damage.
"A cataract operation in a hospital costs between Rp 3 million (US$326) and Rp 5 million," she said on Thursday, adding that the possibility that many people knew nothing about the free service could have contributed to the low uptake for the scheme.
"The agency's records indicate that the incidence of cataracts is highest in Mauk, Pakuhaji and Sepatan districts. Cataracts can be caused by several factors, including lack of sunshine, malnutrition and age," she said.
"In many cases in Tangerang regency, cataract sufferers go blind because they ignore the problem and fail to get proper treatment and surgery," said Ruswandi, the head of the Perdami cataract section.
He said it was difficult to predict how long it would take a cataract sufferer to go blind.
"Usually, a person goes blind after having a cataract for at least three years," Ruswandi said, adding that if a sufferer only had a cataract for a period of less than one year, it could still be cured.
He called on people to undergo routine eye examinations.