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Why this 200 year old government ophthalmology hospital in Chennai is fantastic?
Posted on: 16/Jul/2018 9:38:50 AM
It was in the year 1819 government ophthalmic hospital was established in Egmore. This hospital is grabbing the attention of many now and is making news. It is really sensational that this hospital in Egmore is the second oldest eye hospital in the world after the London based Moorfield’s Eye Hospital. The evolution of public health care system in India under the British is shown by this amazing eye hospital in Chennai. In the next year this popular Egmore eye hospital would be celebrating its 200th year and that would be tremendous.
It must not be forgotten that this eye hospital was initially started as Madras Eye Infirmary in the month of July in the year 1819 in Royapettah. In the year 1820, this eye hospital was shifted to the site occupied by tram-shed in Egmore because for more space. Then this hospital was shifted in the year 1884 to the current place which was then known as Marshall’s Road. The foundation stone for the eye hospital was laid by Dr. Drake Brockman. As per the hospital records, the infirmary was rechristened as government ophthalmic hospital in the year 1888 and since then this hospital has been responsible for providing vision to many people. It must be noted that Dr. Richardson is the first superintendent and founder of this hospital and he was also one of the surgeons of East India Company. He studied ophthalmology under Dr. Travers and this Travers who was a surgeon in London to the East India Company in the year 1819. Later Dr. Richardson was sent to Madras and he founded The Madras Eye Infirmary.-
The director and superintendent of this eye hospital, Dr. P. S. Maheswari, expressed her thoughts and spoke about how the hospital was initially started as an out- patient block at the current site. She also threw light on the Lady Lawley block that was the oldest block in this hospital and how this block was opened by Lady Lawley in the year 1911. In the year 2007 it was announced as a heritage building. People visiting this eye hospital would be surprised to see the Elliot’s museum in the premises. This eye museum is one of the Asia’s first and it was set up in the year 1921. This eye museum serves as the proof for the treatment facilities plus diagnosis given to the people in the pre-independence period and is superb. Rare collections of antique ophthalmic instruments plus pictures, paintings, visitor’s book of 19th and early 20th century, images of the patients, slides of various eye diseases diagnosed here etc are present in this sensational eye museum.
The year 1985 was superb and it was in this year the hospital was elevated to Regional Institute of Ophthalmology under the National programme for Control of Blindness. This 478 bedded Egmore eye hospital has got modern equipments plus 4 air-conditioned operation theatres, 2 minor operation theatres and 24 hours casualty services. Many people visit this eye hospital for their eye issues these days. Fantastic isn’t it!!
