Community & Charities
Medical and Health
Jockey Club supports children’s eye care and microsurgical training to promote ophthalmic healthcare
14/07/2018
The number of elderly patients suffering from cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration is on the rise due to the ageing population trend, while short-sightedness amongst local children is also becoming more common.
In response to the steadily increasing demand for eye care services, the Club’s Charities Trust has provided over HK$78 million support to the ophthalmology team of the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) to implement two three-year programmes, namely the CUHK Jockey Club Ophthalmic Microsurgical Training Programme and CUHK Jockey Club Children’s Eye Care Programme.
The CUHK Jockey Club Ophthalmic Microsurgical Training Programme, the first of its kind for ophthalmology in Hong Kong, offers comprehensive microscopic surgical training for local medical professionals to enhance the efficacy and safety of ophthalmic surgery, which requires great precision, and enable better eye care services. The training suite provides simulated training equipment and a wet lab using animal eyes. The target is to train over 100 ophthalmic doctors and healthcare professionals each year.
Organised in collaboration with schools, the CUHK Jockey Club Children’s Eye Care Programme will provide eye examinations for 30,000 children aged 6-8 years old, so as to detect any eye diseases before their visual system completes its development and provide appropriate treatment, thus reducing the chances of permanent visual impairment. Since late January, some 5,000 children have already completed these eye examinations. In addition, the programme will provide a large amount of data to facilitate genetic research for understanding the influence of genetic and environmental factors in eye diseases. The team will also organise regular education seminars and outreach activities to enhance knowledge about children’s eye healthcare within the community.
