Background
The prevalence of blindness and visual impairment throughout PNG is high. These conditions not only affect people’s quality of life, but have substantial economic implications for the community and government, through loss of productivity, and eye and health care costs.
An estimated 58,000 people over 50 in PNG are blind, with an additional 10,000 cases each year. Cataracts account for 70% of blindness, followed by refractive error, corneal diseases and trauma - all commonly treatable conditions. A further 550,000 are estimated to have low vision. The good news is that approximately three quarters of blindness and visual impairment is treatable. Eye care interventions are amongst the most straightforward and cost effective health care interventions, as long as eye health professionals have had appropriate training to provide the interventions. The bad news is that PNG is presently extremely under-resourced in eye health professionals. The one-year Postgraduate Diploma in Eye Care (PGDEC) aims to address this gap by training up eye care professionals.
Program offered within the Department of Eye Care:
• Postgraduate Diploma in Eye Care
