By Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari will Thursday commission a multi-million Naira Tulsi Chanrai Foundation (TCF) Eye Care hospital in Abuja.
The Founder, Mr. Jagdish Chanrai, while addressing a press conference Wednesday in Abuja, said that the modern eye care hospital was established as part of the Foundation’s effort to eradicating curable blindness, while also offering a gift of sight to Nigerians.
He said around 60 per cent of its services would be provided free of charge to benefit the poor and marginalised communities, while the rest would be at highly subsidised rate for those who can afford it, adding that the hospital is expected to be self sustainable in about four years.
Chanrai said, “Eye-care in Nigeria is all set to take a quantum leap into the future with the commissioning of the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation Eye Hospital by President Muhammadu Buhari.”
He noted that the hospital located at Kukwaba, Abuja, beside House on the Rock Church, with a state-of-the-art facility, was the answer to a long felt need for excellence in eye health across Nigeria and West Africa.
Chanrai stressed that the hospital would adopt modern techniques to prevent blindness and various eye conditions, through hospital based and outreach services.
He stated: “Run largely by a Nigerian team of 30 eye professionals who have recently undergone intensive training in India, the facility will be managed by the globally renowned Aravind Eye Care System in India, the largest provider of quality Eye-care in the world.
“The hospital commenced functioning in January 2019 as till date has provided quality eye services to over 6,400 out patients and performed over 1,000 eye surgeries, of which 850 have been free for the poor.
“When at full capacity, the state-of-the-art hospital will have the
capability of performing around 15,000 surgeries per annum, with every effort to set the gold standard for eye-care across Africa.
“TCF Eye Hospital also aims to be the premier ophthalmic training institute in Nigeria for both clinical and non-clinical personnel to help eye-care in Nigeria evolve as a self-
sustaining and thriving model, steered by Nigerian talent.”
“Beautifully landscaped and spread over five acres of land, Phase I of TCF Eye Hospital has a capacity of 54 beds. This will be expanded to 100 beds in Phase II. The centre initially offers services for cataract, pterygium, glaucoma and other conditions, and will soon enable care for other complex eye issues, for Nigeria and other nations of West Africa.”
Chanrai stressed further that TCF has touched over 7.5 million lives through projects across 32 states of Nigeria, through its programmes – Mission for Primary Health, Mission for Water and Mission for Vision, noting that all programmes have been carried out in close collaboration and cooperation with Federal and State governments, various agencies and the people of Nigeria.
He noted that TCF Eye Hospital was established with the support of the Kewalram Chanrai Foundation, Worldwide Healthcare, Enpee Group, Fareast Merchantile Ltd, Nigeria, the HB Chanrai Group of Companies and other donors.
The foundation said it plans to set up a project in each geo-political zone, while also training optimilogist, stressing that the hospital would also conduct out reach programme every week.
Chanrai said the Foundation was launched by the Chanrai family nearly two decades ago, saying it was an intrinsic part of the family and Group’s philosophy of caring capitalism which identifies initiatives that focuses on how one could use a substantial portion of what one has earned, for the
benefit of society.
