Phaco-Refractive Fellowship review @ Agarwal's Eye Hospital, Chennai

1 year duration 

2-4 fellows/ session

Selection- interview, no exam

Fellow intake is usually in April, Oct

Stipend 30k

No admission fees, no bond

You are promised 50 phacos over this 1 year but fellows on average get slightly more (80+ phacos).

You start with SICS and then once competent, they start you on phacos.

Phaco technique taught here is supracapsular method- where the cataract is popped out of the bag and emulsified in AC.

You are started on phaco early on, fellow is usually give full cases to do, the training consultant takes over only where required.

You get very less SICS numbers compared to phacos.

You may get to do advanced cases (PXF, small pupil, hard cataracts) if you show proficiency.

No training for iris claws.

No topical phacos.

You get hands-on for glued IOLs (some 3-4 cases) so you get to use the vitrector then and get a feel for ant vitrectomy.

Also get hands-on for refractive procedures 

Around 80-90 SMILE Pro (they do more of SMILEs at Agarwal's)

20-30 PRK

Less of femto lasik (15-20)

Work timings 8 - 5 pm

Not hectic

No lasers given, Yag caps are done by their PGs.

PhacoRef fellows sit in Cornea OP but see mostly their Refrac cases, not cornea pts

They also have camp pt duties (seeing pre-ops and post-ops)

Camps- once every month/ every 2 months

Night duties- once/ month

Sunday duties- half day OP (8-1 pm), no compensatory off

Evening duties- seeing OP from 5-8 pm 

No peripheral postings but the hospital can post you on short notice to any of their other hospitals (even in other states) in the event of last min emergencies. 

Academics- no formal classes, mostly self learning.

They've started encouraging papers and publication work.