Cataract, Cornea & Refractive Surgery Fellowship review @ Shroff Eye Centre, New Delhi

(To clarify, Shroff Eye Centre is not the same as Shroff's Charity Eye Hospital even though both hospitals are located in Delhi.)

Started recently (2023)

Duration- 2 years

Stipend is 65k -75k

Selection is by interview- theory knowledge is tested but they are more interested in assessing how you handle patients since they get a lot of private patients.

No accomodation provided.

They have a camp setup so after you settle in and get familiar with how OP and camp runs, they start you on surgeries in 2nd month based on your skill. They may start you on phacos too, though initially it will be 2-4 phacos/ month.. as your progress improves, they step up the phaco numbers.

OT happens every day except Sundays but fellows alternate so each fellow gets 3 OT days per week. Daily routine is to see OP in the morning and operate in the evening.

Sunday is not working day unless you have operated on Saturday- then you need to go for Sunday rounds.

No night duties or calls for fellows, those are handled by DNB PGs.

There's also something called "half day" allotted to fellows every week, where half of a working day is free for the fellow to catch up on research work or do other parts of whatever paper/study their respective consultant is working on.

Clinical exposure is average, but you do see all the common cornea cases.

Good hands-on for keratoplasties which starts with steps at first.

You also get good hands-on refractive cases- around 50-60 LASIK flaps, PRK, SMILE, SILK etc

Lamellar keratoplasties are also given but they do more of DMEK than DSEK/DSAEK at this hospital.

Work environment is not toxic and all consultants are very approachable.

Academics are good- theory classes happen once a week and are attended by fellows of all specialties.