Sankara Eye Hospitals, a part of the Sankara Eye Foundation India, is one of the fastest growing eye care chains in the country. Started as a small primary healthcare centre in Coimbatore way back in 1977 by Padma Shri Awardee, Founder & Managing Trustee Dr RV Ramani and his wife Dr Radha Ramani, Sankara has today emerged as a social enterprise managing 12 super specialty eye care hospitals located across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Moreover, Sankara also has 38 Vision Centres across the country. Sankara Eye Foundation, a non-profit organisation, works with the vision to provide quality eye care services to the poor and marginalised sections of society. It provides world class eye care totally free of cost to 80 per cent of its patients and through paid services for 20 per cent of patients, which in turn subsidises the total cost of treatment. As per the latest report from the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), there are an estimated 270 million people with vision loss in India; of these, 9.2 million people are blind. Sankara is expanding its presence in the country. Currently, it has two new upcoming hospitals – one in Hyderabad and another one in Varanasi. The upcoming hospital in Hyderabad will be Sankara’s largest unit after Coimbatore. This facility will focus on serving people in Telangana’s rural areas and is expected to be inaugurated by mid-2024. As part of its deeper penetration into northern India, it will open a new hospital in Varanasi around the same time. The eye care chain is also looking to triple its capacity of free surgeries in its Kanpur unit by 50,000-60,000 from the existing 20,000 and in Guntur to 70,000 from the existing 27,000. Besides, Sankara also plans to increase the number of Vision Centres to 100+ in the near future. The primary goal “Sankara Eye Foundation India is a protagonist of the national eye health care movement in India, continuously transforming the eye care delivery structure through various eye care initiatives across age groups, cutting edge technology, scientific approach, innovation, research and training. The vision of Sankara is born from the need to provide quality eye care to everyone, regardless of socio-economic, religious, linguistic and geographical backgrounds, free of cost,” says Dr Kaushik Murali, President, Medical Administration, Quality & Education, Sankara Eye Foundation India “The primary goal of the community eye health programme is to fight against preventable and curable blindness. More than 80 per cent of blindness is preventable and curable. Sankara Eye Foundation was initiated with this vision and mission to eliminate avoidable blindness. Our goal is to touch 4.2 lakh free surgeries every year by 2030 and continue to offer people the best available eye care treatment. We are today also one of the world’s largest free eye care providers, particularly in the rural areas of the country,” adds Dr Murali.
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Sankara Eye Foundation provides world class eye care totally free of cost to 80 per cent of its patients
