Oct 7 2007
The Fred Hollows Foundation says it wants to see an end to treatable eye disease in central Australia.
About 45 people, mostly from Indigenous communities, are having their sight restored this week during what has been dubbed a blitz on eye surgery at the Alice Springs Hospital.
The foundation's Chris Masters says the blitz will help get through some of the 300 people waiting for eye surgery in central Australia.
He says the foundation is now working with governments and Aboriginal health organisations to develop an eye care system that can stop the waiting lists getting so long.
"We wouldn't be in this if we thought that we were just going to every year have a hit and a blast for a couple of weeks and then go away," he said.
"Our interest is in actually setting a sustainable model that is actually reducing and hopefully getting rid of treatable eye disease."
Mr Masters says most patients have been brought in from remote communities north and south of Alice Springs for cataract surgery.
"The beauty of these sorts of procedures is that you see people 24 hours after they've had a cataract operation and they have a renewed quality of life, they're happy and they can see, you can't do better than that," he said.