On April 28 the Central Eye Hospital inaugurated a network administration centre funded by Australia’s Fred Hollows Foundation (FHF) and the Vietnam’s Ministry of Health in order to upgrade the health sector’s information management system.

“The centre’s opening heralds the beginning of a new era in the management, training and research work we carry out for the benefit of the local community,” said the hospital’s Director Do Nhu Hon.

FHF Vietnam Director, Huynh Tan Phuc, said that the FHF had donated 100,000 USD to the centre, equivalent to half of the work’s total investment capital and one-third of the sum the foundation provides to the hospital annually.

Between now and late 2010, the centre will have access to broadband, which means all the hospital’s departments will be linked to the MoH, various  universities and domestic and international eye clinics.

The Fred Hollows Foundation recently announced that it will provide an additional 2.5 million USD for a public eye care project in the Central Highlands and central and southern provinces between 2009 and 2012. Around 16,000 visually impaired people in Phu Yen, Quang Tri, Dak Lak, Binh Dinh and Vinh Long provinces will benefit from the project.

Over the past two years, the FHF has helped to train 500 ophthalmological doctors, 50 surgeons and 3,000 healthcare workers at medical schools and communal clinics.

In the past the organisation has provided ophthalmological equipment worth over 1 million USD as well as technical and financial assistance to public eye care programmes in Vietnam. It has also brought light to 20,000 people with eye disorders and upgraded 16 eye clinics in selected provinces.

Established in 1993, the FHF is a non-governmental and non-profit organisation that bears the name of the late Australian ophthalmological doctor Fred Hollows. During its two-years in Vietnam, the FHF has helped to bring Australia’s most up to date cataract surgery techniques to the Southeast Asian country./.