An ophthalmology project established at Griffith Base Hospital in 2022 to improve access to eyecare services to Indigenous people has won a NSW Government Health award.
‘Saving Sight is our Vision’ was announced as the winner of the Keeping People Healthy Award at the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) 2023 Excellence Awards in Wagga on 16 June.
More than 200 staff and guests from the MLHD attended the awards ceremony. Winners were announced in 15 award categories.
MLHD Chief Executive Ms Jill Ludford said it was rewarding to see the number of activities happening across the MLHD with sincere efforts to support First Nations communities.
“Improving access to eyecare services through the delivery of high quality, sustainable, affordable, regular and culturally sensitive eye services has been Griffith Ophthalmology’s focus,” Ludford said.
Led by Associate Professor Geoffrey Painter, one of the founders of Gordon Eye Surgery and a director of Foresight Australia, and colleague Dr Dominic McCall, a group of mostly Sydney-based ophthalmologists visit Griffith Base Hospital every four weeks to see and operate on patients from the Western MLHD. In addition, Foresight Australia has sponsored two training courses to upskill employees from the Griffith Aboriginal Medical Service.
‘Saving Sight is our Vision’ was established during COVID when Griffith Base Hospital sought to partner with Gordon Eye Surgery, which was already involved with charity organisation Foresight Australia, providing solutions for preventable blindness in less fortunate communities overseas, and the Indigenous Outreach project.
The collaboration sought not only to address the inequity to access public ophthalmology services for Indigenous people living in the Western reaches of the MLHD but to also reduce the waitlist for ophthalmic surgery.
At the commencement of the program in March 2022 there were 123 patients on the waitlist for ophthalmic surgery with an average wait time of 131 days.
As at March 2023, the program had 10 patients on the waitlist, signalling a significant reduction in wait times. There have been 13 public clinics conducted resulting in 1,796 consultations or 138 consultations per month. Approximately 8% of these patients identified as indigenous.
The joint project also aimed to develop an effective ophthalmic outreach program for the Indigenous people of the Western Murrumbidgee Local Health District. To that end, it established a partnership with Griffith Aboriginal Medical Service to further close the gap in indigenous eye health as outlined in the RANZCO Reconciliation Acton Plan 2021-2023.
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