The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu has said that the House would consider amending the National Eyecare Centre Act to provide for the establishment of more centres across the country.
Kalu made this known during a courtesy call on him by the executives of the Nigerian Optometric Association (NOA) led by their President, Dr. Chimeziri Anderson over the weekend.
The deputy speaker in a statement issued Sunday by his Chief Press Secretary, Levinus Nwabughiogu, added that more institutes are needed to cater for the training of more professionals in optical sector.
He was also of the view that optometrists should be included in the primary healthcare services at the rural communities.
Kalu noted: “I agree with you that the laws around our eye care are obsolete. The society is dynamic so are the problems. Laws are made to be solutions. Laws are made not to be stimulators of problems.
“The primary healthcare act is not sufficient and I agree with you. Gone are the days when issues about the eyes were considered tertiary. They are primary and should be treated as such if the needed health impact that this administration seeks to achieve must be achieved in the Renewed Hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu who is seeking for health security in our country.
“You’re the second person mentioning this, that Abia should push for a national eye center. Someone said that in an engagement with me the other day and then, you’re re-echoing it today. We will go for the amendment of the National Eye Center Act. We are going to put mechanisms in place to push for the establishment of national eye centre. So, we will go for the amendment of the National Eye Centre Act to include Abia.
“While we seek to do that, we will also insist that the need to have more institutions in the other parts of the country especially the South West which is where the president comes from and the other northern parts, in fact, the need cannot be over emphasised. If we are going to have better provision for the eye care service, we must have improvement of skilled professionals in that space which you don’t get on the streets. You get them from institutions and the need has arisen for us to build some more.”
Earlier, Anderson said that it was important to review the relevant laws to accommodate current realities in the sector.
According to him, We are set up by law (Decree 34 of 1989) which is 34 years old and which was just changed to CAP 04 2004 which is about 19 years old and we know that a lot of things have changed in terms of health care practice because we believe that science is a dynamic thing that changes with time. A lot of things have changed but our law remains the same. It has not really come to terms with current realities and what is obtainable in global practice.
The President added that the law could be amended so that optometrists could be integrated in the primary health care bill.
Anderson added: “On the national Eyecare centre, we have one in Kaduna. A law was recently passed for one in Kogi State. I think it’s right for us to have one in Abia State to cover for the eastern region. Eyecare has not been captured in the primary health care. We believe is not captured in the primary health care bill. We hope that something should be done about it so that we can have optometrists in the primary health care centres. For now, we only have them in the general hospitals but where the need is in the communities.”