Lions charitable Eye Hospital, Chittagong had a humble beginning in 1963 when the Father of Lionisum in Bangladesh; the late Ln. M.R. Siddique, 4 times District Governor and the First Commerce Minister of Bangladesh established the OPD of this hospital in a small tin shed on a small land leased to the Lions Club of Chittagong. This was done with a view to providing free eye treatment to the poor. In the year 1965, with the contribution from Lions and philanthropists in Chittagong, the first Charitable Eye Hospital in the Sub-Continent was started in the two-storied building Known as the “Lions Den”.

To run this hospital efficiently; The Chittagong Lions Foundation was formed in the year 1966 with representatives from all Lions Clubs based in Chittagong. Later on, this hospital has grown into a 100-bed facility providing free or subsidized cataract surgery to poor patients; particularly to the poor patients of off-shore islands and the remote hill districts of the Chittagong Division.

We have been organizing outreach camps with the help of our Lions members to bring primary eye care to the doorsteps of the unreached people of these remote areas. Since 1965, we organized 4448 outreach camps and carried out 61,888 surgeries in our hospital on the patients selected from these camps. We treated more than 2 million patients in these outreach camps over the last 50 years. In some camps, we have as many as 3000 patients out of which about 15% are selected for cataract surgeries.

Now our hospital has turned into a modern eye hospital with the assistance from operation Eyesight Universal, LCIF and local donors. We have sufficient ophthalmologists and reasonable equipment to provide Eye treatment and Eye Surgeries at affordable cost to the patients. Further assistance from LCIF will help us turn this hospital into a Tertiary Eye Hospital and Ophthalmic Institute; producing urgently needed Ophthalmologists and ophthalmic Paramedics for the country.

At Present we are carrying out SICS & Phaco Surgeries, DCR, Pterigium, foreign body removal, DCT, Chalazion, trabecetctomy enucleation and evisceration surgeries.

We are also providing diabetic macular oedema diagnosis other maculapathy for varied kinds of diseases with the help of recently procured OCT Machine. We are using OCT machine for diagnoses of early glaucoma by analyzing the optic nerve head and retinal nerve fiber layers analysis.

We are starting pediatric cataract surgery, pediatric squint surgery and other pediatric surgeries in our newly opened pediatric ophthalmology clinic.

We also intend to open a Glaucoma Clinic and a diabetic wing to cater to the needs of eye patients who have diabetes.

During the last year, we treated 69,448 patients in our hospital out of which 2516 patients were offered surgeries. 68,138 patients were treated in outreach camps out of which 4590 patients were detected with cataract but only 1879 patients turned up for surgeries in our hospital.