The Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune ever since its inception has been synonymous with quality medical care. The ophthalmology department has been known over the years for its sense of commitment to society. Community ophthalmology has been developed as an important branch of social medicine with the sole aim of preventing and controlling blindness.

The AFMC Eye Centre involves itself in community service by reaching out to the local populace. Three to four diagnostic camps are conducted every month by the Eye Department of AFMC with the help of various NGOs. The patients are operated at the Cantonment General Hospital and Command Hospital (Southern Command) Pune.

The Cantonment Hospital is equipped well to handle 50 to 60 cataract surgeries per day. Spectacles and medicines are dispensed free of cost at these camps. Various methods of cataract extraction are performed by this institution, most noteworthy being the ‘sutureless’ cataract surgery. The centre at AFMC has evolved into an excellent vitreoretinal centre in recent years. Here the patients are routinely investigated with ultrasound and their treatment done with the extensive use of lasers. AFMC Eye Centre is also complemented with a team for plastic surgeons of the eye for such illness as squint, injuries in
road accidents and cosmetic corrections.

Lasers have moved from obscure scientific experiment into the realm of medicine for some time now. At AFMC, lasers are routinely used for the treatment of glaucoma and retinal diseases like diabetic reinopathy. Every week 40-50 patients of all socioeconomic strata are given free treatment. Thus, even the rural poor have access to these expensive treatment by qualified surgeons.

The eye bank at AFMC is the only recognised eye bank of the Armed Forces. The Indian Eye Bank Association has graded it as a class `A' bank. The eye bank procures, processes, preserves and provides donor cornea to needy soldiers, their dependents as well as to civilians. Over the past one year, highly complicated cases like chemical burns have been tackled by the new and evolving technique of limbal cell transplant. The AFMC Eye Bank has conducted over 30 corneal transplant last year. The eye department has not only been keeping abreast with latest trends in the world but has also been involved in serious research projects in cooperation with the Armed Forces Medical Research Committee and the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Recently the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune organised for the first time, a diagnostic eye camp for the entire staff of CDA(O), Pune comprising approximately 1300 personnel. The camp was conducted under the guidance of Lt Gen M A Tutakne, Commandant of the Armed Forces Medical College. CDA (O) Mr Arunava Dutt was also present on this occasion. The eye team consisted of Col P K Sahoo, Professor and Head, Department of Ophthalmology, Lt Col A P Kamath, Associate Professor, Lt Col FEA Rodrigues, Lt Col J K S Parihar and PG trainees. The camp was conducted to detect early abnormality and to treat any present ailment as the staff of CDA(O) have to work under stressful conditions. Their pulse, blood pressure and weight were also recorded. Approximately hundred voluntary staff also donated their blood to the blood bank of AFMC as goodwill gesture.