House To Amend National Eyecare Act, Create More Centres

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu has said the national eyecare centre act will be amended to provide for the establishment of more centres across the country.

He also said that more institutes are needed to cater for the training of more professionals in the optical sector just as he agreed that optometrists should be included in the primary healthcare services at the rural communities.

Kalu made the disclosures during a courtesy call on him by the executives of the Nigerian Optometric Association (NOA) led by their president, Chimeziri Anderson over the weekend.

The deputy speaker in a statement by his chief press secretary, Levinus Nwabughiogu, underscored the need for health security, adding that the centres will be spread in line with the federal character principle of the country.

Kalu who recently conducted a medical outreach where over 1000 persons with various degrees of eye problems were treated also recalled sponsoring the amendment bill of the Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Registration Council Act (Repeal and Enactment) Bill to allow for more efficiency.

He said, “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 a national eye centre. So, we will go for the amendment of the National Eye Centre Act to include Abia.”

Earlier in his presentation, the national president of the National Optometric Association, Dr Anderson said it was important to review the relevant laws to accommodate current realities in the sector.