{"id":23506,"date":"2024-10-16T13:54:34","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T13:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=23506"},"modified":"2024-10-16T13:54:35","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T13:54:35","slug":"government-eye-health-initiative-sees-low-uptake-citizens-encouraged-to-use-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/government-eye-health-initiative-sees-low-uptake-citizens-encouraged-to-use-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Government Eye Health Initiative Sees Low Uptake: Citizens Encouraged to Use Service"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p><em>September 28, 2024<\/em><br><em>By Delicia Janniere<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The government\u2019s eye screening and spectacle voucher initiative, designed to provide vital eye health services to targeted groups, has recorded low participation despite its widespread availability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was highlighted by Vice President and General Secretary of the People&#8217;s Progressive Party Civic (PPP\/C), Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, during a recent press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The initiative aims to benefit approximately 274,000 individuals, including around 200,000 students from both public and private schools and 74,000 pensioners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, only about 23,000 eye tests have been conducted, and 18,753 vouchers for spectacles have been utilized so far. Dr. Jagdeo noted that these numbers fall short of the government&#8217;s expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The programme provides a $2,000 voucher for eye screening and a $15,000 voucher for spectacles if needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It targets individuals aged 18 and under, as well as those 65 and older. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Vice President emphasized that even those who already wear spectacles should consider retesting their vision, as there are no restrictions on returning for additional services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the national budget, $840 million was allocated for eye tests, while $995 million was set aside to subsidize the cost of spectacles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite these efforts, the government remains hopeful that more citizens will take advantage of this essential health service to improve their eye health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>September 28, 2024By Delicia Janniere The government\u2019s eye screening and spectacle voucher initiative, designed to provide vital eye health services to targeted groups, has recorded low participation despite its widespread&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[350],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23507,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23506\/revisions\/23507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}