A total of 953 people in Karnali Province received free sight-restoring eye surgeries during the last fiscal year, as outreach programmes sought to bridge one of Nepal’s widest healthcare access gaps in its most remote mountain communities.
The surgeries were carried out by the Himalaya Eye Hospital, Pokhara, under the Nepal Netra Jyoti Sangh, through free eye camps and community-based outreach programmes across Karnali. The hospital also provided eye care services to 17,649 people during the year, including 7,217 free eye examinations through outreach camps and treatment for 10,432 patients at eye care centres in the province.
Karnali, Nepal’s least accessible province, continues to face shortages of specialist healthcare, with many residents forced to travel long distances for services that are readily available elsewhere. Cataracts and other preventable eye conditions remain a major cause of avoidable vision loss, making mobile eye camps and local surgical services critical to reducing preventable blindness.
The hospital operates eye treatment centres in Jumla, Kalikot, Humla and Mugu, providing examinations, treatment, counselling and referrals closer to communities that are often cut off by difficult terrain and limited transport infrastructure.
The Nepal Netra Jyoti Sangh said it plans to expand specialist eye care in Karnali by deploying ophthalmologists in Jumla and upgrading three additional district centres to perform eye surgeries locally, reducing the need for patients to travel outside the province for routine procedures.