INTRODUCTION

Guru Nanak Eye Centre is a premier Ophthalmic Institute  in the capital of India providing comprehensive eye care services to the  residents of Delhi, national capital region and even surrounding states. It was  conceived in 1971 and its first wing, the OPD block became operational in 1977.  This institute has the latest state of art facilities and infrastructure to  cater to complete ocular investigations and treatment of eye diseases. The  Centre has six Ophthalmic Units, while two units are posted together in OPD,  Wards and Operation theatre each. The OPD block has ten cabins running  simultaneously each day and twenty four doctors working together to perform  Ophthalmic OPD checkup, hand–in-hand with examination facilities for refractive  error testing with auto-refractometers, binocular vision testing and orthoptic eye  check up. The routine investigations including tonometry, blood pressure,  syringing and others are done in Minor operation theatre room. The emergency  services run throughout 24 hours on 24x7 basis. During OPD hours, medical  examination of candidates for appointments to various posts, and routine and  special medical boards are also done.

The investigation lab props the Ophthalmic care  and has Ophthalmic machines including Anterior segment optical coherence  tomography, posterior segment optical coherence tomography, ultra-biomicroscopy,  ultrasound, visual fields, specular microscopy, focimeter, biometry  machine,  Pelli Robson charts for  contrast sensitivity testing, potential acuity meter, Orbscan, visually evoked  potential machine, eletro-retinography machine and glaucoma diagnostics. The  LASIK machine for removing need for glasses treats about twenty patients per  week. 

The specialty clinics are run in the afternoon  from 1 pm onwards with state of art facilities for treating patients having  specific diseases. The Paeditaric Ophthalmology Clinic has Perkins tonometer,  Plus-Optix for biometry in children, Hand held keratometer, hand held slit lamp  and B-VAC machine for visual acuity testing in children. The Squint Clinic has  Lees Chart, synoptophore, prism bars and special Snellen’s charts for testing  visual acuity and squint examination. The Retina Clinic has diode LASER, Argon  Green LASER, Micro pulse LASER, fluorescein angiography, indocyanine green  angiography and HD Optical Coherence Tomography for diagnosing and treating  retinal diseases. The cornea clinic not only treats patients of corneal  diseases but also does LASIK surgery for removal of glasses and runs an Eye  Bank for Eye Donation and doing corneal transplants. The Oculopasty clinic  treats patients of epiphora, naso-lacrimal duct blockage, ocular tumors,  orbital fractures and the like. The Contact lens clinic prescribes soft lenses,  rigid gas permeable and prosthetic lenses to the patents to treat diseases like  high refractive errors, corneal ectasia, corneal opacities, amblyopia, etc. The  Neuro-Ophthalmology clinic treats patients having optic nerve and central nervous  system disorders.

The Ward Block has more than 212 beds placed in  spacious and clean stretches. The wards have adequate water facilities,  lighting and are well ventilated and cleaned regularly about three times a day.  The Nursing staff administers medicines and other care as advised to the  patients along with active record keeping. The kitchen provides healthy and  nutritious food to the patients on routine basis and special diet to the  relevant patients as advised. The Nursing home has twenty separate rooms which  are equipped with air conditioners and regular facilities.    

The Guru Nanak Eye Centre is on journey to  relentless development with seemingly no halt, to keep abreast with upcoming  technology and machines like femtolaser, microwave based optimaser, contact  lens sterilizer, optical coherence tomography angiography, retcam, to speak the  least, are already in pipeline. The Centre does not lag behind any world class  Ophthalmic institute with knowledge and technology going hand in hand to eradicate  blindness. 

  EVOLUTION OF GURU NANAK EYE CENTRE

  Irwin Hospital, later renamed Lok Nayak Jai  Prakash Hospital, was founded in 1936. It had a small Department of  Ophthalmology amongst its various departments. On August 1, 1958, Delhi Medical  College, later renamed Maulana Azad Medical College was established with  affiliation to Irwin Hospital. Irwin Hospital & its various departments  assumed teaching responsibilities and started teaching M.B.B.S. students.  Postgraduate teaching was subsequently added in 1964. Thanks to the foresight  and efforts of its competent and dedicated faculty, the department of  ophthalmology grew phenomenally and the various sub-specialties of  ophthalmology flourished. The Squint Clinic was established in 1964, the Eye  Bank in 1965, the Retina Care Unit in 1969 and the Contact Lens and Low Vision  Aid Clinic in 1971.

In view of the phenomenal growth of the  department and the efforts of the then Head of Department, Dr. S.R.K. Malik,  the Govt. of India decided to upgrade the Ophthalmology department to a  full-fledged institution and Guru Nanak Eye Centre was thus conceived in 1971.  The aim was to provide the infrastructure for further development of the  tremendous potential of the department and in the process have an ophthalmic  institution of a high caliber.

Initially, only the OPD block was created &  it became operational in 1977. At that time, the indoor facilities and  operation theatre continued to run in Irwin Hospital. Indoor and OT facilities  were added to the GNEC campus in 1993, with the establishment of a 184- bedded  ward block, its second wing.

INDOOR  SERVICES

There are 5 general wards & 1 private ward for patients  requiring admission. There are total 212 beds with 110 beds in General wards I,  II and V for admission of male patients  & 74 beds  in General wards III and IV for  admission of female patients. A  total of  28 rooms are available in the private ward, of which 21 are  air-conditioned and 7 are non-AC rooms. The charge for the AC room is Rs. 650/-  per day & the charges for the Non-AC room is Rs. 450/- per day. The check  out time for the private rooms is 11.00 am.

COMMUNITY  SERVICES PROVIDED BY GURU NANAK EYE CENTRE

Guru Nanak Eye Centre carries out  ophthalmic check-up, investigations and surgery for cataract with intraocular  lens implantation for patients of cataract under aegis of National Programme  for Control of Blindness, as cataract is the most common cause of blindness  India and worldwide, immediately following refractive errors. Following formal  inauguration by the Hon’ble Health Minister, the pre-registration of patients  is done on two days and these patients follow up with respective OPDs on the  dates assigned to them. Following detailed check-up, and relevant  investigations, the cataract surgery with intraocular lens implantation is done  free of cost. The patients are closely followed up till refraction and  prescription of glasses is done.

Additionally, OPD Camps are carried out at  Primary Health Centres allied with the Maulana Azad Medical College and at  distant sites which are otherwise underserved and unpriveleld and have less  accessibility to Ophthalmic Health facilities, in association of programmes  carried by the Delhi government.

The free medicines are given to the  patient from the Hospital pharmacy. Additionally, material for surgery is  predominantly provided by Medical Store of the hospital.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

HEADS OF THE DEPARTMENT