The Rotary club of Kenton on Sea had their latest Kenton Sees Eye screening day on Thursday 18th April 2024.
This screening was held with the assistance of Graham Critch Optometrists from Kenton on Sea and Dr Davies Optometrists from Grahamstown, without whom this outreach would be impossible.
Our Rotary club takes on the administration of the project, organising the venue, facilitating the optometrist’s work and registration of the patients. We take care of all the follow up appointments and operations, transporting and accompanying the patients to Grahamstown. We co-operate with the local clinic to facilitate visits to the Provincial Hospital in Port Elizabeth and sourcing additional medications.
On 18th April eighty three (83) patients were screened. Only three (3) of these patients did not require some measure of care. A further sixty (60) patients could not be attended to and have their names on the waiting list.
Twenty one (21) people will be taken to Davies Optometrists in Grahamstown for further investigation, and eighteen of these patients will then be scheduled for Cataract operations, as soon as space can be found for them on the lists at Settlers Hospital in Grahamstown.
Besides this, 65 pairs of spectacles have been prescribed, will be sourced and delivered to the relevant people within two to three months.
From June 2024 there will be a change in the format of the outreach. Graham Critch has agreed to screen 10 patients per month, 11 months of the year. This will spread the load more evenly and facilitate a smoother service. Dealing with 100 patients at a time, it is easy to overlook those in most need.
We are presently fully booked from June into December 2024. Appointments will be taken for February 2025 once bookings for December are completed.
This is one of the most necessary and rewarding projects that our club facilitates. Nothing compares to an elderly cataract patient, the day after their operation, looking up and saying – “Oh I can see you now!”
The first family day was held in 2012 and was established by Barbara Matthews and Dr Davies from Grahamstown.
