Introduction:
In Bangladesh most of the eye care facilities are in urban area whereas two third of the total population live in rural areas. Government, national, international private organizations own the eye care facilities. The service facilities equipped with quality eye care services are located in the district (secondary eye care) and divisions (tertiary or equivalent). There is no statistics or detail information about the eye care facilities, their personnel, equipments and instruments and so on can be found anywhere. There is a lack of information and updated data on the service delivery, coverage, qualified hospitals in eye care. Moreover, the present referral system is found to be inadequate or almost non-existence in several areas. There is no means of updating the information on the facilities, services, coverage, and about the service providers in eye health, which impedes the eye care services all the time. The national Eye care plan also requires such updates and authentic studies and dynamic tools for getting updates for planning and resource allocation including HR development and planning for the country.
Documentation is much needed for the eye care facilities so that mass people can get to know about the geographical location, personnel and services of the organization, a web based mapping could be one of the best options to reach the expectation of the country population. By clicking just one button one could identify different levels, categories of eye facilities, personnel, desired services, network system and so on. The mapping will show the actual scenario of all the government and non government facilities. Now no one knows about the eye health settings of the country, a web based mapping will help the rest of the world to know about the eye health status which will probably help us to get funding in this sector. This web based mapping will help Bangladesh Government and INGOs to figure out the supply and demand side and it will also help to map a referral linkage, service, equipments and human resources. This website will create a national plan for working on eye care, different types of advocacy and campaign. This is a voluntary work and this will be a valuable part for the national database which will help Bangladesh Government to show the scenario of National Eye Care.
Rationale of the Web based Mapping:
The rational for the mapping assignment includes:
- strengthening and supporting existing eye health facilities and service development
- using data/information to conduct policy research, updating/evaluating eye health status and policy advocacy
- Development responsive referral network in eye care services
- Build a national platform in eye health – Partners in Eye Health
Aim of the Project:
The aims of the study are:
- To identify the existing status and scope for eye health facilities and service development
- To develop a web based data/information to conduct policy research, updating/evaluating eye health status and policy advocacy
- To describe a responsive referral network in eye care services
- To build a national platform in eye health – Partners in Eye Health
