Eye surgery in India - 20th October 2021

Over 500,000 eye operations are done by one group of hospitals in India every year.

The Aravind Eye Hospital began in 1976 after Doctor Govindappa Venkataswamy visited McDonald's Hamburger University. He thought about the way McDonald's does business.

Venkataswamy had the idea to make hospitals which worked the same way. His first hospital opened with 11 beds. Now, there are Aravind Eye Hospitals across India.

There are 10 million blind people in India. About 50 million have eyesight problems like cataracts. This can be fixed with an operation, says director of Aravind Eye Hospital, Thulasiraj Ravilla.

Thulasiraj Ravilla: "And the bulk of this blindness is not necessary because lots of it is due to cataract, which can be easily set right through a simple surgery."

Many operations were delayed because of the pandemic. The hospitals are now working longer hours so that they can help more people.

Thulasiraj Ravilla: "So, typically we start, the theatre starts at 7am. Maybe the first case may come out at 7.15 or 7.30. So that continues, that has not changed. But then in the past, we would be done by lunchtime. You know, and after that they, they would prep the theatre for the next day. But now it's not uncommon for the surgery to go on till four o'clock, or three o'clock, four o'clock, like that."

The operations are very quick. But only two out of every 10,000 people get an infection after surgery. The chance of infection is lower than in the UK and US.

Patients aren't worried about the "McDonald's" system. They're happy that the operation's quick.

Venkatachalam Rajangam: "I thought the operation would be for an hour but within 15 minutes everything was over. But it didn't feel rushed. The procedure was done properly."