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New challenges face Haitian ophthalmologists following earthquake
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BERLIN — Five months after a major earthquake devastated Haiti, ophthalmologists there are encountering a patient shortage as Haitians seek care provided by relief efforts.
"Part of the problem now is that because there's so much [supplies] coming in, and all of this is free, a lot of the patients who normally see their physicians are going to the free clinic," Mildred M.G. Olivier, MD, said at the World Ophthalmology Congress. "So the Haitian ophthalmologists are actually having a real struggle in terms of being able to just survive."
Dr. Olivier recently returned from Haiti, her second visit to the country since the earthquake. Dr. Olivier, who is Haitian-American, has done ophthalmic outreach work in Haiti for a number of years.
In her first trip to Haiti after the earthquake, she said Haitian ophthalmologists were digging their practices out from the rubble and providing general medical care.
In her second visit, she said she found that for those Haitian ophthalmologists who have returned to their practices, few patients were attending office visits. In contrast, the university hospital was "like a zoo." She said about 200 people were there without enough physicians, medications or room.
Months after the earthquake, Haiti’s suffering population is still seeking treatment for the serious injuries sustained during the disaster. Yet a serious imbalance is coming about as the country’s most experienced ophthalmologists, themselves struggling to work for a living, find themselves competing for patients with free clinics staffed with less qualified providers of care. One can certainly understand why the population cannot be choosy about doctors when life’s most basic needs still have not been fully restored. Yet as Haiti emerges from “survival mode,” one can expect some restoration of balance as the country’s most skilled doctors resume the work they were trained to do.
–John A. Hovanesian, MD, FACS
OSN
Cornea/External Disease Board Member
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