Expands access to vision screening and emergency eye care.

The Vision/Eye Project initiative was born about three years ago. This Programme led by Ophthalmic trained nurses has made great strides in attaining projected targets. They have excelled in increasing the awareness of eye health in the Department and in the wider community, as well as establishing working relationships with the private sector and civil society organizations. During the fiscal period 2013-2014, the Vision/Eye Project Unit trained more than 100 health care workers in New providence and select Family Islands in the skill of conducting visual acuity evaluations. In addition, more than twenty nurses in the Family Islands have been trained in the management of emergencies involving the eye. During fiscal period 2014-2015, the Department is determined to expand the services that are offered to our patients in the Family islands, and a number of additional steps will be taken to provide our Family island clients with the best service we can. To this end, steps are being undertaken to ensure that a significant number of hypertensive and diabetic patients who are on the Department’s CNCD register receive a slit lamp examination at least every two years. Renal replacement therapy and transplants are ever present among the Bahamian population for various reasons. The more preventable causes of chronic or end-stage renal disease include uncontrolled hypertension and diabetes. With four nephrologists employed at the tertiary health level, more can be done about the preservation of renal health among CNCD clients. As a next step in this direction, the Department of Public Health is in discussion to introduce a Renal Health Initiative, anchored in the Department by four trained renal nurses. The approach will be to use the Department’s existing CNCD register, with assistance from the national laboratories to identify those persons who are at risk for kidney damage. A team of specially-trained Renal Nurses will then be tasked with ensuring that the majority of those individuals identified from the register are contacted and that the appropriate tests are undertaken to document the state of their kidney health. It is hoped that this activity will provide the basis for referral to renal specialist doctors who will advise them on the best way to rehabilitate their kidneys or at least slow down the decline to further kidney damage and end-stage renal disease.