Surat doctor brings eye care to villages, performs over 30,000 free surgeries

For some patients, the biggest barrier to saving their eyesight is not the treatment itself. It is reaching a doctor before the condition becomes too serious. In parts of Gujarat, people living in remote villages may delay eye check-ups because of travel costs, limited awareness or difficulty accessing specialists. By the time they reach a hospital, a condition that could have been treated earlier may have already caused lasting damage.This is a problem that Dr Bhavin Patel, a retina specialist in Surat, has spent years trying to address. Instead of waiting for patients to find their way to a hospital, he has helped build an outreach system that takes eye screening into villages and brings patients who need treatment to Surat.