Eye care situation analysis tool (ECSAT)
Background
The World Health Organization (WHO) World report on vision (WRV) predicts a substantial increase in the number of people with eye conditions and vision impairment in the coming years (https://www.who.int/ docs/default-source/documents/publications/worldvision-report-accessible.pdf). The concept of universal health coverage ensures that all people have access to needed promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative health services, of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the user to financial hardship. World Health Assembly resolution WHA73.4 (August 2020) (https://apps.who.int/gb/ ebwha/pdf_files/WHA73/A73_R4-en.pdf) Integrated people-centred eye care, including preventable vision impairment and blindness urges Member States to make eye care an integral part of universal health coverage and to implement people-centred eye care in health systems. Integrated people-centred eye care (IPEC) refers to eye care services that are managed and delivered to assure a continuum of promotive, preventive, treatment and rehabilitative interventions against the spectrum of eye conditions, coordinated across the different levels and sites of care within and beyond the health sector, and according to people’s needs throughout the life course. The WHO Eye care situation analysis tool (ECSAT) intends to support countries in the planning, monitoring of trends and the evaluation of progress towards implementing IPEC. It is designed primarily for national and district Ministry of Health eye care planners and policy-makers. ECSAT should be initiated and conducted by the Ministry of Health or a relevant, government-endorsed, national eye care coordination body. Key stakeholders will be the Ministry of Health and other programmes, or sectors involved in vision screening or eye care service delivery, e.g., provision of spectacles. Other key stakeholders are WHO and other development partners such as international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). ECSAT is a questionnaire-based assessment tool, designed to inform planning. It is intended to be applied at the national level. If responsibility is decentralized to the subnational level, then it can also be applied at this level.