IOL Fellowship review @ Aravind Eye Hospital, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Duration 2 years 

1 fellow taken every 3 months

Stipend 40k in 1st yr, 50k in 2nd yr.

OT starts after 3 months, you start with SICS. First 10 SICS happen in a training OT with an SICS trainer and then you are posted in regular OT and given 2 OT turns per week.

You have only 2 turns and some times you may miss out on a turn because you'll be posted for camp or asked to go to some dept to help cover their OP when it gets busy.

So first 6 months can feel frustrating but it's a phase all fellows go through.

But after those 6 months, you start getting called more regularly (still 2 OT turns per week only) and the no. of cases given per OT increases gradually based on how well you pick up.

They give you phaco training when 2nd yr starts but phaco turns subsequently become irregular. However, that changes in the last 6 months when they start calling you for phaco more regularly and give you more cases per turn.

The promised numbers are 1000 SICS (you will do 2000/+ in 2 yrs) and 100 phacos (can cross 100 also)- these are normal NS2 cataracts.

Advanced cases for phaco and ant vitrectomy are not given during the fellowship.. those can be mastered when you join back as Medical Officer (MO) post fellowship.

[Compared to Madurai, your surgical chances as an MO are better in Coimbatore since the OT sisters push you to do more plus your senior mentor surgeons also encourage the same thing. Also you're assigned to training PGs and fellows as an MO, so you end up fine-tuning your skills very well.]

OP is hectic, but nonetheless as mentioned before, you can still be asked to go to help out in other busy depts when they are short of people.

There are also 1-month speciality postings in the 2nd yr of fellowship and during those postings you may even get procedures like intravit injections or laser PIs based on interest you show.

Camps 1-2/month, night duties 1/month, Sunday duties once every other month or even later.

Work timings 7.30-6 pm

Academics- regular classes and IOL forums happen weekly.