IOL Fellowship review @ Drishti Nethralaya, Dibrugarh, Assam

9 months 

Selection- by interview

2 fellows taken per session

Stipend 40k

Accomodation provided in campus (15k extra)

No admission fee 

You are selected as fellow only if you're good in SICS (shud have done 500+ SICS)

You start surgery in first month itself  

After around 10-15 SICS, they start you on phaco 

You start with 1 phaco per OT and number increases as your speed picks up

You can go up to 5 phacos in an OT, rest will be SICS

Daily OT... Mon to Sat

You start with basic NS2 cataracts and get to do some small pupils, PXF cases also

Phaco machine assigned to fellows is the Hummingbird which is not efficient for hard cataracts, hence hard cataracts not given for phaco to fellows.

The better Oertli machine is reserved for senior consultants, however some lucky fellows may get to operate on it now and then.

You start stepwise side port in few cases then rhexis then phaco and so on till you do full cases

Can expect an average of 150-200 phacos by end of fellowship 

Pure phaco fellowship, no refractive exposure.

Daily routine-

OPD is from 9-5 pm. OT runs alongside OPD.

Fellows are called by turn to OT during OP. When one fellow goes to OT, the other sees OP and when first fellow finishes, he comes down and the next fellow is called to OT.

Work environ is hectic but  not toxic

Post OP, you have to do pre-op assessment for camp pts so it can go up to 7/ 8 pm

All camp postops are to be seen next day before 8 am

During this fellowship, you also get to learn to manage complications.. can also get to do ant vitrectomy and put iris claws

However, if you end up with a complication, next day OT is cancelled for you. Your next phaco chance will only come the day after.

Peripheral posting- once a week on rotation basis at another centre where you see OP and post ops and come back to main hospital by 1.30 pm... then you're called to OT for ur turn. 

So you dont miss OT chances even if you go for peripheral visits. 

Night duties are by turn but no patients usually come.

Sunday duties- only postop duty and then you're free.

No camp duties.

If you take leave during your fellowship, you miss those OT chances, they will not be compensated.

Initially when you join, the number of cases you get may be low since the hospital also takes paid short term phaco and SICS trainees as well.. so you can have up to 6 fellows at a time.. cases have to be distributed between fellows and paid fellows get priority.. still, as a long term fellow, you will get a case every OT.