Present Trends Regarding Eye Camps
In Punjab, it is now increasingly practiced to hold 'in-reach base hospital approach' in the cataract blindness control programme. Periodical screening camps are held and subsequently only the selected patients are admitted in the base hospital for surgery and other specialised treatment. This is because of various factors such as, microsurgeryfor cataract, high standards in aspects of operation room facilities, higher expenditure in outreach surgical camps, better communications and travel facilities available in most areas and availability of near adequate numbers of ophthalmic surgeons in this region. This trend is desirable and is in the right direction. These trends are also helpful irieducating the public to be quality conscious. To achieve this ideal mode of service we need the response from patients in accepting this system.

As there is no blanket policy from the health departments to discontinue surgical eye camps, the various philanthropicgroupscontinue to organise eye operation camps inviting renowned surgeons in this field with standard track records. So. till that time, we feel that eye surgery camps will continue and that the Christian Medical College and Hospital,beinga pioneer in this fieldwith Mobile Eye Services, providing comprehensive eye care with good track records, will also continue to hold surgical eyecamps. These are considered complementary to the existing local surgical facilities.

When surgical eye camps have been organised from our base hospital, once or tWicea year for over a decade,we have repeatedly come across patients with bilateraloperablecataractswithin one km distance of the town. What prevented them from attending one of the existing ophthalmic services of their choice in the town? It is very often the apathy, apprehension. poverty and such other factors which prevented them from coming out of their dark corners.

Patient's Attitude Wbne Attending an Eye Camp
When the surgical eye camps are held in their own area, patients feel comfortable and secure in the company of their own people and friends, in familiar surroundings. They repose their trust in the organising body for restoration of their eyesight.They expect the organisers to invite the right surgical team. Their feeling is - "if others are getting their eyesight restored in the camp surgery, I too should get my eyesight restored". The organisers do play an important part by making the patients comfortable by providing them with food and shelter. These organising bodies are the bridges between the patients and the surgical teams. Even when people have the purchasing power their priority lies elsewhere. They do not want to spend money to buy good eyesight even when this facilityexists within theirreach.This requires awareness and a change of attitude. Change takes time.

With the population explosion of the lower socio-economic groups and overall increase in longevity, age-related' cataract still remains the major cause of blindness, which is 'sight-restorable' blindness. Also there is an ever increasing backlog of age-related cataract.. Nearly 80 percent of our population is rural. As we complete 40 years of Mobile Eye Services, we still find the relevance of holding surgical eye camps in the rural areas. We come across patients with ocular morbidity which is preventable when attended to at an early stage. We notice that the existing facilities are not utilised by the patients. Through the Mobile Eye Services eye camp, referral services provide not only for patients with eye diseases but also for patients requiring treatment in other disciplines of medicine.(Ref.statistics in Table 1 and Figure 1)