Current Status & Future Plan of the Gandhi Eye Hospital.
History of the hospital goes back to 1928 when Dr. Mohan Lal set-up a small clinic in the busy quarters of the city to provide treatment to patients suffering from eye ailments. In those days patients were reluctant to visit doctors and there were no eye specialists, only general practitioners.
His first task was to create awareness amongst the people about importance of eye care & proper treatment. For this purpose he started providing on the spot treatment and awareness material to the rural folks visiting the annual agriculture exhibition. Gradually the response gathered momentum and patients visiting the clinic swelled and Dr. Mohan Lal was obliged to shift the activities to a larger premises. He started indoor facilities. Gradually the hospital grew in its stature & Dr. M.K. Gupta joined him.
In due course the premises became too small and the land at which the present hospital stands was acquired. Facilities for 1000 beds was created and at times even that proved to be insufficient. Without going into details suffice to say Dr. Mohan Lal did his eye specialization from Vienna and visited Europe & U.K. several times to keep updating diagnostic and surgical facilities at the hospital. During his visit to Egypt in 1958 he studied the rural health programme and on return formed 4 mobile units for holding camps in rural areas where the surgery and necessary treatment was rendered on the spot. These camps were generally of 10 days duration where usually about 300 patients were operated.
Realizing the need for more eye specialists he started teaching courses in collaboration with Aligarh Muslim University. Thus first Institute of Ophthalmology was established in 1952.
In combating blindness the Trachoma was considered to be the main courage. A pilot research project to evaluate the causes of blindness & prevention of blindness by Trachoma was launched at the Institute under aegis of World Health Organization