Lisbon, Sept. 4, 2024 (Lusa) - Around 1,000 patients in the country's interior have benefited from free cataract operations under protocols established in 2018 between the Álvaro Carvalho Foundation and nine local councils.
In a press release, the Álvaro Carvalho Foundation said that on Tuesday it performed its ‘1,000th cataract surgery in the interior of Portugal' as part of the 'Giving Sight to the Interior' project, marking 'an important step forward in the provision of ophthalmological care to underprivileged populations'.
‘This initiative aims to make up for shortfalls in care provided by the health service in the speciality of ophthalmology, significantly reducing waiting times for first consultations (which can take up to several years) and cataract surgeries,’ explained the same press release.
According to the organisation, ‘the Álvaro Carvalho Foundation has established partnerships with nine local councils in the Beira region, sharing the costs of the operations and ensuring that they will provide free care to residents’.
‘Individuals and institutions, such as the Claude and Sofia Marion Foundation, contribute to the financial support of this charitable cause,’ it said, emphasising that “patients are selected based on strict clinical and social criteria”. The Beira Interior Ophthalmological Clinic in Castelo Branco is the technical partner.
Speaking to Lusa, the president of the Álvaro Carvalho Foundation, doctor Álvaro Carvalho, said today that the patients who benefited from this initiative were spread across the municipalities of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo (172), Almeida (207), Idanha-a-Nova (135), Mêda (85), Penamacor (160), Pinhel (86), Proença-a-Nova (70), Sabugal (48) and Sertã (8), in the districts of Guarda and Castelo Branco. There were also a total of 14 patients from elsewhere in those districts.
According to Álvaro Carvalho, there is a ‘small percentage, of 15 or 20 patients in total, the Foundation ended up bearing the costs’, for social or clinical reasons.
‘Our protocol is equal payment: the Foundation pays 50% of the surgery, and the council pays 50%. And the council ensures that the patients are transported to the surgical site,' he said, explaining that the basic price of the surgery is €1,100.
The president of the Foundation explained that next month, the Mação Town Council will also join this project.
The doctor, a native of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo who was clinical director and then chairman of the Board of Directors of the Garcia de Orta Hospital in Almada (Setúbal), explained that, within the scope of the relationship with local authorities, specialists' travelling is also promoted in what he calls a day of assistance.
‘In Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, where I am from, I've already taken 36 doctors from 23 specialities on a day of assistance to give free consultations,’ he said.
According to the press release, in addition to the care days in various medical specialities, through which it offers ‘hundreds of free consultations’, the Álvaro Carvalho Foundation also ‘invests in training health professionals, with a special focus on nursing home carers’.
‘The Álvaro Carvalho Foundation is an organisation dedicated to providing medical care to underprivileged population sectors in the rural interior of Portugal’ which, “through strategic partnerships and innovative initiatives”, works “to fill care gaps and improve access to essential health services”.
SR/ADB // ADB.
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