. Intensifies crackdown on quacks

By Steve Oko

UMUAHIA — Abia State has become “the only state in Nigeria with functional vision centres spread across its primary healthcare centres (PHCs)”, the Administrator, Abia State Health Management Bureau, AEHMB, Dr Mrs Betty Emeka-Obasi, has said.

Emeka-Obasi disclosed this while fielding questions from newsmen on the activities of the Bureau and the state of eye-care services since Governor Alex Otti assumed office.

She said 20 vision centres were currently functional across the state’s PHCs, in addition to specialist eye-care centres in the three senatorial districts — Umuahia, Aba and Arochukwu — with the latter expected to be commissioned soon by the governor.

According to her, the development was part of Otti’s campaign promise to make quality eye-care services accessible to residents across the three senatorial zones.

Dr Mrs Emeka-Obasi said the administration’s intervention was particularly important because preventable blindness arising from conditions such as cataract, glaucoma and refractive errors could be addressed if patients had timely access to qualified professionals.

“Preventable blindness is something that is solvable,” she said, stressing the need for early detection, proper treatment and access to qualified eye-care professionals.
She decried the high rate of glaucoma cases in the South East but said early detection and compliance with treatment schedules would stop patients from losing their sight.

The AEHMB boss also decried the superstitious belief among some residents who attribute eye problems to attacks by enemies and resort to spiritual remedies instead of seeking timely care from qualified eye-care professionals.

She explained that before the Gov. Alex Otti-led administration came on board, eye health was largely treated as “a footnote” in the state’s public health system.

According to her, eye clinics were left with obsolete equipment, inadequate infrastructure and no central coordinating body to set standards or hold anyone accountable for outcomes.

“Before we came on board, eye health was treated as a footnote in general public health. There was no central coordinating body. Nobody was held accountable for outcomes in the eye sector,” she said.

Emeka-Obasi said the situation changed after Otti declared a state of emergency in health, education and infrastructure, leading to the establishment of the AEHMB on July 15, 2024, with a mandate to regulate eye-health services and make them accessible, affordable and of high quality.

She said the Bureau began with a needs assessment across the 17 local government areas, which revealed that many facilities had no functional eye clinics, while some had only a table and obsolete equipment.

“We didn’t just start seeing patients. We started by building the scaffolds — standard operating procedures, needs assessment, infrastructure and state-of-the-art equipment,” she said.

According to her, the specialist eye centre was subsequently renovated, expanded and equipped with modern equipment, while a similar facility was established at Aba General Hospital from scratch.

Dr Emeka-Obasi expressed delight that Abia had emerged as a reference point in the establishment of vision centres in primary healthcare centres, a feat other states are striving to emulate.

She said the reforms had triggered a dramatic rise in patronage, from about 400 patients recorded before the reforms to about 6,000 in the first year, and subsequently tens of thousands as more centres became operational.

Emeka-Obasi said the Bureau had also expanded outreach services to communities across the 17 LGAs, stressing that the strategy was aimed at taking eye care to underserved populations and reducing their vulnerability to quacks.

“We do not just sit back and wait for patients to walk into the clinic. We go out there, reaching them in their own communities,” she said.

” In the last two years, we have served over 33,884 patients, provided free eye screening to 31, 125 people through 20 outreaches”.

As part of efforts to strengthen personnel capacity, the AEHMB boss said the bureau had conducted 162 in-house training sessions for its staff, while also recruiting additional experts, including consultants, across various areas of eye care.

The administrator also disclosed that the Bureau had intensified its crackdown on quackery, following cases in which patients allegedly lost their sight after receiving treatment from unqualified practitioners.

She disclosed that a man allegedly operating an illegal eye-treatment centre had been arrested and was expected to be arraigned in court.

Emeka-Obasi said the battle against quackery required sustained enforcement as well as public education, noting that government had heavily subsidised services at its PHCs.

Responding to a question on the cost of eye-care services and concerns that high charges could push patients towards quacks, she said ignorance remained a major factor, particularly because many patients were unaware of the subsidised services available at PHCs.

“At the primary healthcare centres, nobody asks you to pay for a card to see the doctor. That’s free. The drugs are also cheaper because we procure them in bulk,” she said.

She added that the government had also provided free surgeries during special intervention programmes and used outreaches to identify patients requiring further treatment.

Emeka-Obasi said the ultimate objective was not revenue generation but preventing avoidable blindness and restoring sight.

“These figures are just figures. We are more interested in the people we are restoring sight to, those preventable blindnesses that we are helping to prevent,” she said.

She said the decentralisation of eye-care services had begun to bridge the gap between underserved communities and specialist services, while giving residents a credible alternative to unqualified practitioners.

“The primary healthcare centre is the bridge between the haves and the have-nots in society,” she said.

“We remain focused on our founding vision – a state where vision loss from preventable, early-detectable, or affordably treatable causes are a thing of the past”, she declared.