All systems go!

Today the team is busy with screening and surgeries. The long list of patients for today are older folks who some have endured years of cataracts. The severity of the cataract means the cataract is no longer opaque but almost like brown-black marbles. It is unlikely in Australia, that cataracts would be left so long without treatment. Cataract surgery takes about an hour to complete and provides the opportunity for an improved quality of life, and to avoid blindness. Imagine trying to see with a brown marble in your eye!

While there is a healthcare system in place in the Philippines, it is not as comprehensive as Australia. Gaps in coverage inevitably mean poor and marginalised patients, even with healthcare insurance, sometimes do not have the financial means to cover even the gaps.. Therefore, many Filipino people go for years and years without treatment causing the cataracts to age and becoming so dark it causes its victims to become blind.

This is likely an unimaginable scenario for anyone living in Australia – whether financially well off or not. But this is the case here in the Philippines, people cannot always afford treatment. The program operated by Open Heart International and Adventist Hospital Santiago City, with support of Foresight Australia, gives opportunity to those who may otherwise go untreated to receive care and resume normal life again.