Palliative care experts believe that more than 7 million people suffer from pain and other symptoms due to such illnesses and conditions annually in India.
Barsana is an ancient holy town located 150 KM’s away from New Delhi in Uttar Pradesh. Barsana is surrounded by a cluster of 120 villages. The villagers here are extremely poor and can barely afford one square meal a day. There are no medical facilities in this cluster. Due to their extreme poverty and lack of medical facilities they prefer to lead a life of blindness due to cataract. Vision & dental issues amongst people are reported highest in this part of the cluster in India.
In 1992, a group of doctors visited Barsana (about 150 kms from Delhi) andthey found people living in utter poverty & needing help for medical facilities especially Cataract and Oral diseases. It serves about 120 villages in & around Barsana and villagers from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana & Delhi also come for the treatment.
Initially it started as an annual camp and from the year 2011 it has started regular secondary services at Barsana Healthcare Centre and offers general consultation, eye care & specialized services. During 2017-18, the hospital has offered 11874 OPD services and operated 1283 cataract patients.
Barsana Healthcare Centre is currently equipped with an Eye OPD, Operation Theater (OT), Pharmacy& Optical Shop with plans to expand into a full-fledged dental facility in the future.
The objectives of Barsana Healthcare Center: –
Apart from the regular services at the hospital, it also conducts Annual Mega Camp at Barsana. At the annual mega camp, villagers are screened for eye & dentals diseases and school children are offered free general health, eye & dental check-up. During the annual mega event held in February 2018, 2897 were screened for eye out of which 982 patients were identified for cataract and offered free cataract surgeries.
Ganga Jadon, 60 years, a resident of Karela village says, “After my cataract operation, I am able to see clearly and I will be to go to temple and have the Darshan of Radha-Rani. I thank my well-wishers”.
SupediJat, 60 years has travelled all the way from Chavara village of Rajasthan and her experience at the camp has been successful as she now is able to see clearly and will live an independent life. She extends her heartfelt wishes to all.