Orbit & Oculoplasty Fellowship review @ Aravind Eye Hospital, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Duration: 18 months.

First 4 months: General Ophthal posting. 

You'll be put in their peripheral centre for a month too. You'll get to start SICS surgery then. 1 OT day per week. No exposure to Oculoplasty for the first 4 months. 

Next 14 months you'll be posted in Oculoplasty department. 

First two months will be just opd. 

Oculoplasty OT starts from third month.    

The regular 1 day SICS OT and 1 day oculoplasty OT will be the norm. 

If there are less fellows in the dept, you'll get more OT days as you'll be assisting the consultants in OT. 

Camps: 

You will have to go for camps twice or thrice a month. It'll be on weekends. Guys get more number of camps and longer camps than the ladies (ahem). They go for camps as far away as Kodungallur, Munnar etc in Kerala and Hosur in Karnataka. But some long distance camps like in Ooty and Munnar are really enjoyable and worth it. 

Academics: 

No formal classes. There are classes for DNBs, none for fellows. You'll have to read on your own. 

No exams at the end of your fellowship. 

You'll be asked to take classes for the sisters during the fellowship. 

You can present cases or studies for conferences. They allow you to attend conferences only if you are presenting something. 

Consultants and exposure to Oculoplasty: 

The consultants are pretty chill and usually good. An odd toxic consultant maybe there. They give you DCR initially and then the lid and orbit procedures. No exposure to ocular oncology. There's a separate 1 week posting at Aravind Madurai for that at the end of your fellowship. 

Duties: 

Emergency night duty once in a month or two months. Other fellows and DNBs also take night duties, so it'll be quite rare to get duty often. 

Cataract exposure: 

SICS only. No phaco. 

It starts from 3rd/4th month during your general posting. The numbers will depend upon your speed and how you pick up. One cataract OT per week till the end of your fellowship. 

Can expect to do around 100 to 200 SICS by the end of your fellowship.

There will be a Consultant to teach you all the steps systematically.

Timings: 

Opd timings are usually from 7:30am to 6pm. Some days it might go beyond too, depending on patient load. 

Two 15 mins break in the morning and afternoon. 

A 1 hour lunch break at noon. The short breaks may be cut depending on opd patient load. The head sister of opd decides that for you. 

Emergency duty is from 6pm to 8am the next day. 

Camp timings are from 1pm on Fridays or Saturdays to Sunday 2pm. Depending on the camp and transport, it'll vary. 

Accommodation: 

They provide hostel accommodation. It's a 30 year old hostel, cramped and as small as opd cubicles. Most fellows and DNBs survive there. 

You do get decent accommodation at nearby apartments. But the rent maybe high. 

Water is all hard water. You can't take a head bath with it, unless you like stiff hair. Some fellows complain of hair loss too. You'll have to find some alternatives for that (the water, not the hair). 

Food: 

Hospital has a pathetic canteen which provides terrible vegetarian food. You can have it if you don't have any other choice.

Most people order from outside or take a mess subscription. There are decent mess subscriptions available including Jain food.

Area: 

The hospital is in the outskirts of Coimbatore city near the airport, so flights are easy to catch.

There's also an IMAX movie theatre nearby with a few decent restaurants, so weekend chill out plans do work. There's a few restobars in the more centre of the city like 10-15kms away.

My take: 

Aravind Coimbatore is better than Madurai for Oculoplasty as you get to do other procedures like lid/orbit procedures than just DCR.

Aravind is a hospital with a name in Ophthalmology since the last 30-40 years and the sheer patient load is something that you'll never get anywhere but if you want to be up to date with the absolute latest procedures, Aravind can be lacking in some aspects.