A central Chinese city has launched a campaign with an ambitious
goal of offering free medical treatment to all of its cataract
patients.
The government of Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan, central China, has decided to offer
free vision restoring surgery to cataract patients in three years
beginning from this year, said sources from the city
government.
Altogether 55,000 people have been suffering from impairment of
vision or total blindness because of diverse reasons in the city,
of whom, 30,000 have had their vision damaged partially or
completely due to incidence of cataract.
In accordance with a document, entitled Opinions Regarding
Launch of A Obstacle-Free Campaign for Cataract Patients, the
city has put forward six standards, including no obstacle in
leadership in relevant organizing work by the government, no
obstacle for access of knowledge about prevention and medical
treatment of cataract, no obstacle for cataract patients to get
vision restoration operation free of charge.
To guarantee a smooth run of the campaign, the city government
of Zhengzhou has also made it clear that it would set aside three
million yuan (about US$ 375,000) for cataract-inflicted
vision-impaired surgery each year, while governments of different
urban districts and suburban counties under the city are also told
to prepare at least 200,000 yuan (about US$ 25,000) each for
support of the campaign.
(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2007)