According to the five public surveys conducted between 1982 and 2012, blindness rates in Thailand still exceeded the World Health Organisation’s ceiling of 0.5 per cent.

“The [cataract-surgery] project didn’t reduce Thais’ blindness rate as much as it should have,” Royal College of Ophthalmologists’ president Dr Paisal Ruamviboonsuk said earlier this year.

In 2007, 0.59 per cent of the population was registered as blind. Of those, 51.6 per cent of cases were cataract-induced (98,336).

In 2012, the rate had risen slightly to 0.6 per cent, with 69.7 per cent cataract-induced (70,071 cases).

The statistics suggest the project, which has consumed a budget of well over Bt10 billion in the past seven years, lacks efficiency.

Inside sources claim that hospitals seeking a slice of the huge budget have signed up patients whose eye conditions did not warrant surgery.

“Patients who didn’t need surgery urgently were recruited for the project in rather high ratios, especially at private hospitals, which claimed 30 per cent were in need of eye operations,” said one insider.

The same source says that many hospitals did not screen patients’ conditions properly, preferring to fill quotas quickly rather than prioritise cataract cases according to severity and need for surgical intervention.

The NHSO last year set a target of 116,221 cataract operations, but hospitals under the project undertook a much higher number of operations – 168,726, or 145.2 per cent of the target.

But while the number of cataract sufferers undergoing surgery grew, the problems in implementing the programme meant the rate of blindness did not fall.

This issue requires serious attention from the authorities.

Fortunately, the signs are positive.

The Public Health Ministry and the Royal College of Ophthalmologists recently stepped in to help improve the implementation of the NHSO project.

Their efforts come in the form of strict and efficient screening of patients under the so-called VISION2020 programme.

“This screening sets clear and efficient criteria for patients needing eye surgery. The staff providing the screening is not from the same team as those providing the operations. This way, the implementation of eye surgery should become more efficient and benefit patients more,” said Dr Pornthep Pongtawigorn, who heads the Banphaeo Hospital (Public Organisation).

Dr Chakkrit Ngowsiri, assistant secretary-general of NHSO, insists the NHSO will now prioritise serious cataract cases for operations.

The NHSO has set a target of 112,200 cataract operations next year, based on health areas with a high incidence, plus patient information from the Public Health Ministry’s VISION2020 programme, he said.

Backed by VISION2020, there’s new hope that the NHSO project will reach more of its target groups and prevent as many sufferers as possible from becoming blind.

Each incremental improvement in efficiency means that the sight of more patients is saved. So let’s hope that the relevant authorities get serious about changing the implementation of a project that has the potential to bring life-changing benefits to so many.