Aravind Eye Care Hospital is an ophthalmological hospital with several locations in India. It was founded by Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy.[1]
The hospital is named after Sri Aurobindo, one of the 20th century’s most revered spiritual leaders
Given the magnitude of blindness and the challenges faced in a developing country, the Government alone cannot meet the health needs of all. Realising this predicament, Dr. Venkataswamy wanted to establish an alternate health care model that would supplement the efforts of the Government and also be self-supporting. Hence, upon his retirement in 1976, he established the GOVEL Trust to initiate eye care work.
Under this Trust, the Aravind Eye Hospitals were founded. Today, Aravind is more than an eye hospital. It is a social organisation committed to the goal of elimination of needless blindness through comprehensive eye care services. It is also an international training centre for ophthalmic professionals and trainees who come from within India and around the world. It is an institute for research that contributes to the development of eye care and to train health-related and managerial personnel in the development and implementation of efficient and sustainable eye care programmes. Aravind also is a manufacturer of world class ophthalmic products available at affordable costs through the Aurolab.
Aravind keeps its surgical equipment in operation 24 hours a day, which reduces the cost-per-surgery. Also, doctors focus only on performing surgery, and nurses handle pre-op and post-op care, which increases doctor productivity. These actions allow the company to give away free surgeries to the poor while still earning a profit.[2] The hospital performs high-volume and high-quality eye surgeries inexpensively to address the needs of the 12 million blind people in India.
It is the only examination centre of the Royal College of Ophthalmology, United Kingdom, in India. It is headquartered in Madurai.
From April 2009 to March 2010, Aravind treated over 2.5 million out-patients and performed over 300,000 surgeries for poor Indians.[3] Aravind is a financially-viable healthcare system in India. One of the hospital’s investors is the Acumen Fund, the non-profit venture fund that invests in companies delivering critical goods and services to developing countries.
Hostels are provided to resident doctors - both foreign & domestic.
The Aravind Eye Care System is the recipient of several international awards including