Millions of Indians regain their sight with free McDonald's-inspired surgery
Thulasiraj Ravila, co-founder of Aravind.
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Dozens of Indians are waiting in a hospital for their turn to undergo a free cataract operation that allows them to restore their sight, thanks to a solidarity network of ophthalmology, inspired by the industrial model of the McDonald's restaurant network.
About half a million surgeries, most of them free of charge, are performed annually in the "Aravind" network, which was established in 1976 and the number of its beds in Madurai, Tamil Nadu (southern India) was limited to eleven.
The Aravind system, developed by then-retired eye surgeon Govindappa Venkataswamy, is based on the principle of performing a very large number of surgeries in order to reduce costs, in accordance with the principle adopted in the sales of hamburgers at McDonald's.
The doctor was introduced to the concept of economies of scale in a chain of fast food restaurants during his visit to the "Hamburger College" in Chicago.
"If McDonald's can do that in the hamburger business, why not do it for eye care?" he said at the time.
According to the World Health Organization, India was home to 8.9 million blind people out of the 38 million in the world in 2020. Blindness is largely due to cataracts (clouding of the lens) but also to infectious diseases such as trachoma.
Blindness can be completely avoided in the case of cataracts, which “can be corrected with a simple surgical intervention,” emphasized Thulasiraj Ravilla, one of the founders of Aravind.
But what Aravid is most proud of is the itinerant screenings it provides to the poorest, as about 70 percent of India's population lives in rural areas.
Ravella added in a statement to AFP that enabling people to access medical care is the main goal of the network.
"This is what prompted us to go to the residents to treat them, instead of waiting for them to come to us," he said.
These free checkups have changed the lives of many Indians, including 64-year-old Venkachalam Rajangam, who had to give up his job at a grocery store because vision problems made it impossible to keep working.
But one day he learned that Aravind was providing examinations near his village in Kadokari, 240 km from Madurai, so he went to the place and doctors diagnosed him with a cataract in his left eye.
He was taken by bus with about 100 other patients to the vast site of Madurai, where he was treated in hospital.
The next day he underwent surgery.
“I thought it would take an hour, but after 15 minutes it was over,” Rajangam recalled.
However, I did not feel that it was a hasty, the operation was done correctly.”
"I didn't have to spend a single rupee (...)," he added.
Aruna Bay, an eye specialist in ophthalmic surgery, Aruna Bay, says that doctors receive special training in quick and effective surgical interventions.
Hospital figures indicate that the complication rate is less than two per 10,000, while the ratio ranges between 4 and 8 per 10,000 in Britain and the United States.
"We have training labs where we learn to operate on goats' eyes," says Bey, who performs about 100 operations a day.
This helps us enhance our skills.”
Rather than relying on philanthropy or government aid, the Aravind network relies on income from medical care and consultations paid for by patients who have the resources to cover treatments for the poorest.
Aravind also derives significant revenue from the sale of transplanted organs and the medicines it produces.
The network also includes specialized care centers and community clinics.
The group is also reducing its costs by making its own cataract lenses at its Oralab production unit, which produces more than 2.5 million lenses a year, at a price six times lower than those that were imported from the United States.
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