PRESS RELEASE

Eye hospitals build worldwide network

At the end of March eye hospitals from around the world have made agreements in South-East Asia regarding the exchange of high-level medical and organizational knowledge. By cooperating internationally, the eye hospitals hope to guarantee the best available ophthalmic care to the patient.

While in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok continuously many very luxurious office buildings, shopping malls and cultural facilities are being built, eye hospitals are constructing a worldwide cooperation at these very same locations.

Thanks to the franchise concept, you encounter the same top brands in South-East Asian shopping malls as in the shopping Valhallas in the West. The client knows these worldwide brands and is very well able to estimate its quality and price. In health care this still takes a long way. Between and even within hospitals large quality differences can be noticed. Something of which the patient can not have a clear idea. Branding and uniformization which on the one hand lead to a cost reduction and on the other hand show the quality difference between providers, are still missing internationally or are still in its infancies.

By looking together at protocols, procedures and quality, not everyone has to re-invent the wheel. During the yearly meeting of the association it was decided to set up an educational programme, where excellent doctors in training, nurses and other employees can be exchanged between the hospitals.

All hospitals which are member of the WAEH are “centres of excellence” in the area of ophthalmology. This means that they are all focused on delivering the best and most safe ophthalmic care. The WAEH members find it obvious that they are all acknowledged in the near future. By showing that one meets the highest international standards, one also attracts new patients. Especially hospitals in South-East Asia see possibilities for medical tourism, a combination of holidays and treatment.

Not only adults profit from this international knowledge sharing, but also the young children. During the meeting, Mr. Chris Sanders, ambassador of The Netherlands in Singapore, launched a Chinese version of the original Dutch information site for children: www.eye4kids.eu. The website Eye4Kids has been developed in 2006 by eye doctors and orthopaedists of the Eye Hospital Rotterdam for especially children. On this website children can find information about eyes and ophthalmic disorders.

The cooperation between the eye hospitals contributes to the objectives of the project Vision2020 of the World Health Organization (WHO). The most important objective is to halve the amount of blinds and visually handicapped people worldwide in 2020.

The WAEH meeting in 2009 will be organized by the St. Eriks Eye Hospital of the famous Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (the university which hands out the Nobel price for health care every year).

Note for the editors

The World Association of Eye Hospitals was founded in 2007 in Rotterdam as a coordinating body of the American, European and Asian eye hospitals. Centres of excellence from several countries are member of the WAEH and of the executive board.

For more information regarding the World Association of Eye Hospitals you can contact:

Eye Hospital Rotterdam
Maaike van Zuilen
vanzuilen@oogziekenhuis.nl
Schiedamse Vest 180
3011 BH Rotterdam

The Netherlands
Phone: +31 10 – 401 76 84
Mobile: +31 6 – 456 32 117
Website: www.oogziekenhuis.nl
www.eyehospital.nl
www.waeh.org
www.vision2020.org