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Saturday, February 15, 2025

Dr Ronnie Bhola, creating his vision in San Fernando

by

Bavina Sookdeo
1992 days ago
20190903

Tell us who you are and what you do?

I am the chair­man and chief sur­geon at Trinidad Eye Hos­pi­tal (TEH). Our vi­sion at TEH is to cre­ate a world where every­one sees. I am so mo­ti­vat­ed by this vi­sion that I have made this my life’s pur­pose as restor­ing sight for the vi­su­al­ly im­paired is my pas­sion.

What mo­ti­vat­ed you to be­come a doc­tor?

Well to be hon­est, ini­tial­ly, like most 17-year-olds, I had no clue what field of study I would have liked to do. It was some­thing I did be­cause I was a bright stu­dent and I won a schol­ar­ship which of­fered me a great op­por­tu­ni­ty to be­come a doc­tor.

While in it, I al­ways had a need to do some­thing for peo­ple—a hu­man­i­tar­i­an need. A de­sire to serve those who are help­less. I think every­one has this need. I think I was just giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to do so in a big way and it gave me equal­ly, an enor­mous amount of sat­is­fac­tion. I al­so love that all the peo­ple around me get the same lev­el of hap­pi­ness by con­tribut­ing to the mis­sion and now, ex­tend­ing it out to the cor­po­rate world so they can feel the joy and hap­pi­ness.

Was the road to be­com­ing a doc­tor a chal­lenge?

As with any pro­fes­sion and spe­cial­ty, there will al­ways be chal­lenges. A great doc­tor is one who nav­i­gates those chal­lenges to make a dif­fer­ence in his/her coun­try and in the world. There were many sac­ri­fices study­ing abroad for many years but com­ing home to make a dif­fer­ence made it worth all the ef­fort.

How long have you been a doc­tor?

Since 1992, so, 27 years with 20 years as an oph­thal­mol­o­gist.

What is your phi­los­o­phy on health?

Health should be for all. No-one should go blind from a con­di­tion that is re­versible. Glass­es, cataract surgery and oth­er eye care in­ter­ven­tions, these are all sim­ple so­lu­tions to re­versible con­di­tions.

As doc­tors, I think we have a du­ty to the peo­ple to en­sure that they have their ba­sic needs met. Whether or not the pub­lic health ser­vice can de­liv­er it, we must find ways; in­no­v­a­tive ways; be­cause we can’t de­pend on the pub­lic health ser­vice for every­thing. We must help our­selves. We have to do what we can for the peo­ple be­cause we are ca­pa­ble.

God gave us a gift; he didn’t give it to us to live as kings; he gave it to us to use it for a good pur­pose/rea­son. What bet­ter pur­pose than to give sight to the blind?

Why did you es­tab­lish your prac­tice in San Fer­nan­do?

I am from South (Trinidad), I went to school at Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do so I feel very con­nect­ed to the San Fer­nan­do com­mu­ni­ty. I al­so see a lot of di­a­bet­ic dis­ease in this part of the coun­try and my main sur­gi­cal skill is re­pair of di­a­bet­ic eyes. I am one of the most skilled sur­geons in the world in di­a­bet­ic reti­nal surgery.

Most sur­geons do a fel­low­ship in reti­nal surgery which lasts one to two years but I have been do­ing over 400-500 reti­nal cas­es for the last 10 years, which means I have nev­er stopped learn­ing and now am a mas­ter of this type of surgery. This was al­ways one of my goals to be a world-class sur­geon.

What gives you the most ful­fil­ment from this pro­fes­sion?

When I see my pa­tients and they are smil­ing. They re­mind me of my rel­a­tives, my friends, my neigh­bours and the joy they feel trans­fers. If I see 100 pa­tients; I get joy; their joy, from all 100 of them every­day—that’s prob­a­bly the biggest thing.

What is your most mem­o­rable ex­pe­ri­ence as a doc­tor thus far?

It has to be char­i­ty and hu­man­i­tar­i­an events. We give sight to the blind. Peo­ple who can’t see, we make them see.

The con­nec­tion I have to these types of events is some­thing I have trou­ble de­scrib­ing some­times as the feel­ing is so pow­er­ful but what I am sure about is that it re­al­ly makes me hap­py to help oth­ers in this way. I would say that’s re­al­ly what I’m here for.

What are your plans to im­pact the fu­ture of eye health in T&T?

Our idea is de­vel­op­ing and chang­ing with time but al­ways to­wards the end goal of a world where every­one sees. We want to cre­ate a world class eye care sys­tem in our coun­try and re­gion.

We want to pro­vide the high­est qual­i­ty of care for cit­i­zens who are not very well off fi­nan­cial­ly, but we want to serve peo­ple from all dif­fer­ent so­cioe­co­nom­ic back­grounds as cit­i­zens from the high­er in­come brack­et al­so de­serve the best care pos­si­ble.

What is your dream for T&T in terms of eye health?

We are go­ing to give you the high­est qual­i­ty of eye care. We will cre­ate a bea­con of light for our coun­try and re­gion. We will be of ser­vice to all the stake­hold­ers in eye­care both in the pub­lic and pri­vate sys­tems work­ing to­geth­er to re­alise our vi­sion for a world where every­one sees.

Any words of ad­vice you would like to of­fer to the peo­ple of T&T?

Change is com­ing, be pa­tient and don’t lose hope.

We are al­so go­ing to be train­ing peo­ple to de­liv­er eye­care; not on­ly for this gen­er­a­tion but to every gen­er­a­tion that fol­lows.


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