Montevideo, November 23 (RHC)-- The José Martí Eye Hospital in Uruguay, where Cuban specialists collaborate, has performed 100,000 eye surgeries, exercising a visual health policy within reach of the entire population of the South American country.

The hospital emerged in the wake of Operation Miracles in 2005, which allowed Uruguayans of all ages to travel to Havana to recover their eye-sight free of charge. The medical facility, inaugurated in 2007,  is a living monument of solidarity.

Highlighting the surgical intervention number 100 000 carried out on November 20, Sixto Amaro, director of the Team of Representatives of the Retired and Pensioners of Uruguay, evoked those beginnings when then-President Tabaré Vázquez promoted bilateral agreements with Cuba that favored population groups with scarce resources.

He recalled that it was a complex period since private interests were opposed and charged two thousand dollars per eye to remove a  cataract.

He said that to date, 263,000 members of all the Retiree Associations had been screened by the hospital.

The Cuban Medical Brigade working for 13 years with health personnel in Uruguay, with Dr. José Hernández as its representative, currently includes doctors, nurses, technicians, administrative and service personnel.

With an ophthalmological profile, the hospital performs screening,  research, retina, glaucoma, occlusion preoperative consultations, refraction, optics, optometry, and medical engineering.

It also actively participates in searching for patients affected by visual impairment throughout Uruguay to heal their condition, an effort recognized and socially valued by the Uruguayans.