NEW DELHI: A survey by AIIMS, Delhi, revealed that on average, there is only one ophthalmologist available for every 65,000 people in the country.

There are 20,944 ophthalmologists and 17,849 optometrists (primary eye care providers) working nationwide at secondary/tertiary level, while the Vision 2020 initiative set a target of 25,000 ophthalmologists and 48,000 hospital-based paramedics to be achieved by 2020 for eliminating avoidable Blindness in India.

The study led by Dr Praveen Vashist and his team from Dr Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences at AIIMS was performed to determine the human resources (HR) and infrastructure available for providing ophthalmic services from the existing secondary and tertiary level hospitals in India and to assess the achievement of targets r

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