New cupboard provides clearer vision at hospital

The cupboard will be used to store intraocular lenses, which cost about $400 each, which are inserted into patients’ eyes during cataract surgery.

Outgoing Rotary Club president Alok Sharma, an eye surgeon at the hospital, said having the work done locally by the club meant the cupboard was built at a fraction of the price it would normally cost.

“If we had bought these kind of things from some other place, it would have cost three or four thousand dollars,” he said.

“Because we got it done locally, it worked out cheaper – it’s basically for the people, by the people of Wagga.”

Previously the Rotary Club had been travelling overseas, to places like India, to perform cataract operations as part of its Darkness to Light project.

However, in recent years the club has decided it should help out closer to home as well.

“We used to go overseas and do cataract operations but all these senior Rotarians, we all came up with the idea, why don’t we do something (for) Wagga,” Dr Sharma said.

“In Wagga we’re concentrating on helping people with visual disabilities … and at the same time we want to support our hospital.”