Duration

Phaco fellowship= 12 months

Glaucoma fellowship= 18 months

Mandatory "pre-fellowship" in any one of their centres- usually for 1 year, sometimes it’s bit longer

There's a bond of 2 yrs post fellowship

Prefellowship- 80k salary

Fellowship- 30k stipend

Post Fellowship Bond- 1.2L salary (penalty of 10 lakhs if you don't continue with bond)

No admission or caution fees.

Pre-fellowship

Though you are supposed to spend only 1 year, it can vary since it depends on the outgoing fellows in the main Ahalia hospital in Palakkad- how many are finishing and in which month.

Based on that and also going by case availability and total number of fellows and DNB at main centre, pre-fellows are called to Palakkad for fellowship (as decided by course director).

Phaco Fellowship

First 6 months SICS.

7th month onwards, phaco starts.

OT is 4 times a week.

SICS weekly minimum 2 cases usually we get, once we do independent cases (after initial 4-5 months), we may get 3-4 cases per week depending on number of camp patients.

Phaco also weekly 1-2 initially, later as we become senior, 4-5 cases per week also can be done as per availability and our hands.

2-3 per week definitely towards the end of fellowship.

We continue doing SICS even after starting phaco.

Hands-on vary according to the camp numbers that's why approx numbers also may vary. Eg, one week you might do 4 SICS and next week only 2. Likewise for phaco.

Approx numbers- SICS around 90-100, phaco 50-70

Complications management and assisting junior fellows is done by senior fellows only, so we get chances.

Numbers may slightly vary due to patients and camps availability.

Compared to outside Kerala fellowships, lesser numbers here but better complications management and we become somewhat confident after 1 yr.

But advantage is that it's not just simple cases you get like NS 2 8mm. You get to operate all types of cases like mature, brown, black, intumescent, small pupil, shallow AC, soft cataract, PPC, PXF etc

So more than numbers, doing diff type of cases make you more confident and you get to manage complications - our own and juniors' also.

You also get pterygium surg occasionally.

Glaucoma fellowship of 1.5 years is structured just like Phaco fellowshp and you get same numbers, but you spend 6 months more.

Trab 7-10 cases or so we get, that too based on availability.

SICS with trab is given, very less exposure to phaco trab or MIGS. MIGS we can observe but no hands-on.

Med Retina (MR) fellowship

The 3 months MR training here is only for those who have already done phaco or glaucoma fellowship from Ahalia.

Training happens in Retina dept under VR surgeon.

You continue to do cataracts- complicated cases like small pupil PXF, hard cataract phaco etc. Around 40 cases in this time.

They prefer to do phaco chop techniques, esp direct chop.

Hands-on for intravitreal injections and lasers like PRP barrage etc is few, not very high numbers.

OPD

Seen by both phaco and glaucoma fellows so you get to see good variety of cases.

Also get to do Yag Cap and Yag PIs

Classes- occasional, mostly self learning

Emergency duties , Sunday camps and ward duties are there but not to the extent that it can be called hectic.

Many fellows feel Ahalia's program is too long with the 1 year pre fellowship and 2 year post fellowship bond included.

But bond period is paid and can be taken as surgical experience so in that way if you plan to work with Ahalia for 4 yrs, it may be worthwhile.

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Old review (Aug 2025)

Phaco and Glaucoma Fellowships

Ahalia offers a 12-month phaco and an 18-month glaucoma fellowship.
Both programs give you phaco training (about 50-60 cases minimum) during your last 4 months here.
If you're a glaucoma fellow, you also get around 5 trab cases in addition to the cataract cases.
All fellows share the same OP workup, so you get to see cases across all specialties.

There is a mandatory one year pre-fellowship duty to be done at one of Ahalia's centers first. During this time, you're an op doctor and get zero surgeries.
Salary during pre-fellowship is 80,000/ month and then 30,000/ month during fellowship (as of 2025).

The main fellowship training happens in Palakkad which is a small town- but the Ahalia campus is huge and vast. Palakkad is not a very happening place but thankfully Coimbatore (cool city with great hangouts) is just 1 hour drive away.

You start with SICS for first 6-7 months and then shift to phaco but if you pick up well, you can start even earlier. You learn to operate on all kinds of cataract.
OT runs daily from 9 am till about 3 pm and usually never goes past 5.
Fellows are also taught to manage complications, do vitrectomies etc.
All cases are recorded and then reviewed later by trainers to determine areas for improvement. Academics and classes don't happen much so it's up to you to read textbooks and other relevant materials.

After fellowship, there's a 1.5 year bond with a salary of 1.2 lakhs annually.
Breaking the bond will cost you 10 lakhs. You can work as a consultant at any Ahalia center for your bond period, they have a branch in most districts of Kerala.

Medical Retina Fellowship

As a fellowship program was just started only in 2025- duration is for 3 months.
So after finishing your Phaco/Glaucoma fellowship, you can opt to stay an additional 3 months and do Medical Retina.
During this time you continue to do more phacos (some fellows have even transitioned to topical phaco in this period) in addition to learning lasers and intravit injections as well.

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