MIOT International hails eye care treatment in Seychelles a success |12 July 2022

Dr Danny Louange

• Eyes cancer treatment as next project

By Patsy Canaya

The six months of operation of MIOT International Total Eye Care Seychelles has been a success, despite a slow three-month start.

The managing director of MIOT International, Dr Prithvi Mohandas, said this while giving an overview of the hospital’s operation during a special event at the Eden Bleu Hotel last Friday entitled ‘TOGETHER with Seychelles in Protecting Your Vision’.

In attendance were the Minister for Health Peggy Vidot as chief guest, as well as other representatives from the Ministry of Health and MIOT International.

The aim of the event was to discuss how public and private entities could work together to protect the eyes of locals.

The MIOT International Total Eye Care Seychelles hospital, managed by Lisa Chetty, was inaugurated on January 14 and started seeing its first patients on January 17.

According to Dr Prithvi Mohandas, it saw an average of seven patients per day for the first four weeks and this gradually increased to eleven in March and seventeen in June. As at the end of June, it has seen 626 new patients, while 1308 old patients had undergone review at the hospital based at ESPACE Building.

“We’ve performed around 140 procedures totally. In the beginning, in the first three months obviously the number of procedures per week was building up slowly but in the last three months it picked up so that almost fifty percent of the work was done in the last three months,” said Dr Prithvi Mohandas.

MIOT International Total Eye Care is a one-stop destination for all ophthalmological needs from cataract procedure, lasers to intravitreal injections, among others. It boasts state-of-the-art equipment and has a 15-strong workforce of ophthalmological experts, optometrists and support staff from both India and Seychelles.

It carried out its first laser procedure on January 24 and its first cataract procedure on February 17.

Dr Prithvi Mohandas said one of the main highlights of the hospital is that all follow-up treatments are subsidised giving patients free follow up checks. This protocol permits the hospital to provide free second opinions and free follow-ups for the patients.

“Consequently, MIOT International Total Eye Care has been relieved from the burden to generate huge funds to pay for high value services or high salaried staff; as all this is subsidised by the Mother-ship. As a result of this protocol, MIOT India has passed on a saving of USD 250,000 from January 2022 to June 2022 to the people of Seychelles,” he explained.

Two of the patients who have received treatment locally in the past six months are Don Marguerite and Andrew Padayachy, who both underwent laser treatment at the new hospital.

In a video presentation, they both described their experience as worthwhile. “Before my laser treatment, I could not drive at night but now I can confirm that I drive anywhere at night and even without my glasses,” said Mr Marguerite.

For his part, Mr Padayachy said he received good advice from the staff as to the best treatment for his eye. “What I appreciate is that MIOT was not after the money. They could have suggested a treatment that was more expensive but they suggested laser treatment which cost around four thousand rupees, and I am well, and I did not even have to travel overseas for treatment,” he added.

MIOT and the Ministry of Health have been collaborating for over 2 decades and over 8000 Seychellois have undergone treatment at its hospital in Chennai, India.

Dr Prithvi Mohandas explained that the idea to set up an eye care hospital in Seychelles came about during the Covid-19 pandemic, to ensure patients are treated locally instead of travelling to India.

“We decided to target ophthalmology as it was fast to set up despite the supply chain problem during the pandemic and an investment of around US $1.2 million was sufficient to open total eye care this year in January,” he said.

Following the success of the MIOT International Total Eye Care Seychelles, Dr Prithvi Mohandas said MIOT International was now looking at another area for treatment locally.

“The big scenario in Seychelles in terms of disease is cancer care, diagnosis of cancer and radiation therapy, this is one of the things that we are keenly looking at and depending on how the investments flow in and the appetite that is available, it is possible that is the next step in Seychelles,” he added.

During Friday’s event, the Ministry of Health gave an overview of its work, with Minister Vidot outlining the ministry’s vision and mission while Dr Roland Barbe, who is the head of the department Ophthalmology, at the Victoria Hospital, gave an a review of the development of eye health care in the country. He pointed out that eye consultation was at 11,841 in 2019 and it reduced gradually the following year to 9,851 and stood at 5,378 patients in 2021.

For his part, Dr Danny Louange talked about managing preventive as well as curative health care.

Friday’s event was also attended by private health practitioners, representatives from the Indian high commission, banks, insurance, Seychelles Licensing Authority and the Seychelles Land & Planning Authority.