A Manchester-based eye surgeon who has made it his life’s mission to provide internationally-renowned eyecare for the people of occupied Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem, has received a Health Champion Award from The Tropical Health & Education Trust (THET) at a special ceremony in London.
Charles Kanavati, Medical Director at Practice Plus Group Ophthalmology, Rochdale, has devoted many years of his career to establishing an award-winning service at the British St John Eye Hospital based in East Jerusalem. Its mission is to transform lives by saving sight in a region that has faced decades of conflict and which suffers from eye disease and injury.
Thanks to Charles’ work, its experts can treat everything from cataracts to the most complex retinal and traumatic conditions from explosions and bullet injuries under the occupation.
Charles began his career at St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital as a volunteer trainee after graduating from medical school. He completed his training and qualifications in the UK before returning home to St John as a consultant surgeon, at which point he set up a resident training programme to train local doctors and reduce reliance on visiting international doctors coming for short periods.
He said: “Over the years we managed to train enough doctors to work at the hospital and every city in the occupied territories. They are well trained in all the subspecialties of Ophthalmology and continue to train new doctors.”
Charles set up a research programme which has seen research into the genetics and treatment of eye disease and blindness in Palestine published internationally, he was appointed the hospital’s Medical Director and helped secure a donation of land in Gaza so the hospital group could build a new, purpose-built hospital for people who were prevented from travelling to the flagship hospital in East Jerusalem because of checkpoints. The new hospital opened in 2016. He also helped establish a small satellite hospital in Hebron.
The hospital group recently launched an emergency appeal after the Gaza hospital that Charles helped to create sustained heavy collateral damage in the Israel-Gaza war, and is currently non-operational. Its staff are trying to stay safe and to continue to deliver sight-saving medical treatment which is needed now more than ever.
Charles said: “The new hospital I helped to build has been destroyed. In the future after the war is over, we need to help rebuild the hospitals in Gaza as much as possible and help treat the injuries of war and neglected diseases.”
With staff and patients from all faiths, St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital treats patients regardless of ethnicity, religion or the ability to pay, and was ordered to be built by The Royal Family in 1882 due to the region’s unique health inequalities. Prince Phillip and Prince William have both visited, Prince William in 2018.
The inaugural Tropical Health & Education Trust (THET) Health Champion Awards mark the inspiring contribution that NHS and independent hospital staff from low-to-middle-income countries are making to advancing global health, both in the UK and their countries of heritage.
Having worked at Stockport’s Stepping Hill hospital, Charles recently joined Practice Plus Group Ophthalmology, Rochdale, as Medical Director and Clinical Director of Practice Plus Group’s outstanding ophthalmology service across 11 sites nationally.
As well as offering private options for cataract surgery at affordable prices through their Wellsoon offer, they also run a fleet of mobile eye units offering NHS patients with age-related macular degeneration sight-saving treatments closer to their homes, from locations such as Asda and B&Q car parks in Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and Lancashire.
