CHECK PROF.'S INTERVIEW HUMBERTO CASTRO LIMA ABOUT IBOPC AND THE HOSPITAL THAT BRINGS ITS NAME, INSTITUTIONS FOUNDED BY IT

INTERVIEW: PROF. HUMBERTO DE CASTRO LIMA

BAHIA NEWS - What does the IBOPC/Humberto de Castro Lima represent for the health of the Bahian community? 

HUMBERTO DE CASTRO LIMA - It represents, above all, the access of those less privileged to a dignified, humane and qualified service. The IBOPC and Humberto Castro Lima Hospital, recognized today in the medical-academic environment, as a reference institution in the treatment of visual diseases and in the prevention of blindness, although limited in their compliance with the quotas defined by the Unified Health System, seeks to meet the great demand for its services, through philanthropy, which undoubtedly contributes to the growing loyalty of its clientele.

BN - To what do you attribute the credibility of IBOPC/Hospital Humberto Castro Lima with the clientele, as well as with the medical-academic segment?

HCL - A combination of factors: our facilities with a high standard of care, the qualification and multiple specialization of our clinical staff (specialists in Retina, Cornea, Strabismus, Cataract, Low vision, Glaucomas, etc.) all associated with humanized care .

BN - Among the services provided by IBOPC, which do you consider to be of greater social relevance?

HCL - Without a doubt the prevention of blindness. The IBOPC and Humberto Castro Lima Hospital has been in recent years one of the greatest performers, in Bahia and certainly in Brazil, of phacoemulsification, which is cataract surgery, one of the great causes of blindness in our country and in the world. In 2007, 4.545 of these surgeries were performed here. Corneal transplantation, although administered by the Transplant Center of Bahia, has also shown increasing numbers of performance at Hospital Humberto Castro Lima. In the year of 2007 there was a growth in the order of 100% in relation to the numbers of the year 2006.

BN - And in relation to global service (consultations, exams and surgeries) did the IBOPC numbers in the 2007 fiscal year match expectations?

HCL - In 2007, 25.031 medical consultations, 59.972 complementary exams and 7.795 surgeries were carried out. Of this total of 92.798 procedures, 60% were provided to the SUS. These are large numbers that make us happy but, instead of accommodating us, they encourage us to always look for more, especially because our installed service capacity is much higher than these numbers, and serving the community is the natural vocation of IBOPC/Hospital Humberto Castro Lime.