Lions Charitable Eye Hospital, Chittagong

Lions Charitable Eye Hospital, Chittagong, had a modest beginning in 1963 when the late Ln. M.R. Siddique, the Father of Lionism in Bangladesh, established the hospital’s OPD in a small tin shed on land leased to the Lions Club of Chittagong. His vision was to provide free eye treatment to the underprivileged. In 1965, with contributions from Lions members and philanthropists in Chittagong, the first charitable eye hospital in the Subcontinent was set up in a two-story building known as the “Lions Den.”

To ensure the hospital’s efficient management, the Chittagong Lions Foundation was formed in 1966, with representatives from all Lions Clubs in Chittagong. Over time, the hospital expanded into a 100-bed facility, offering free or subsidized cataract surgery to poor patients, particularly from offshore islands and the remote hill districts of the Chittagong Division.

The hospital has been organizing outreach camps with the help of Lions members, bringing primary eye care to underserved areas. Since 1965, we’ve held 4,448 outreach camps, performed 61,888 surgeries at the hospital, and treated over 2 million patients in these camps. In some camps, up to 3,000 patients have been treated, with around 15% selected for cataract surgery.

Today, with support from Operation Eyesight Universal, LCIF, and local donors, the hospital has become a modern eye care facility. We have a dedicated team of ophthalmologists and the necessary equipment to provide affordable eye treatment and surgeries. Further assistance from LCIF will help us transform the hospital into a Tertiary Eye Hospital and Ophthalmic Institute, addressing the critical need for ophthalmologists and paramedics in the country.

Currently, we perform a range of surgeries including SICS & Phaco, DCR, Pterygium, foreign body removal, DCT, Chalazion, Trabeculectomy, enucleation, and evisceration. We also provide diagnoses for diabetic macular edema and other maculopathies, with the help of our newly acquired OCT machine, which also assists in early glaucoma detection by analyzing the optic nerve head and retinal nerve fiber layers.

In our newly opened pediatric ophthalmology clinic, we have started pediatric cataract surgeries, squint surgeries, and other related procedures. Additionally, we plan to launch a Glaucoma Clinic and a diabetic wing to better serve patients with eye conditions related to diabetes.

Last year, we treated 69,448 patients in the hospital, with 2,516 surgeries performed. In our outreach camps, we treated 68,138 patients, detecting cataracts in 4,590 of them, with 1,879 patients undergoing surgery at our facility.