Bhubaneswar: A mobile van will be introduced soon to provide eye care services to people covering 10 districts in Odisha, an official source said here.

The service will be available in the tribal districts including Koraput, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur districts under Universal Eye Health Programme launched by Odisha government in October last year.

Equipped with all the necessary medical equipment, the eye care van will have an Optometric Assistant. The vehicle will travel across the localities in these 10 districts once in a week. The patients can undergo eye test during the period.

The authorities have decided to set up a Vision Centre in one Community Health Centre (CHC) in 10 districts each and two CHCs in remaining 20 districts each, said a senior official in health department.

Besides, the eye test will be digitised for the first time in Odisha. Each patient will be provided an eye care card in which all the data about the patient will be mentioned so that the doctors can easily know about the patient if he/she undergoes medical test in any state-run hospital.

A software will be developed by the health department at investment of Rs 2 crore for updating patient's data relating to their ailments and diagnosis.

Earlier, the health department has developed a mobile app DROP (Diabetic Retinopathy in Odisha Programme) for online registration of diabetics and appointment for retinopathy check up in the nearest health centres like sub-divisional hospital and district head quarters hospital for free of cost. The authorities have decided to collect all the data about the eye patients through this mobile app.