Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences on Saturday conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Science on Gullapalli Nageswara Rao, noted ophthalmologist and founder-chairman of LV Prasad Eye Institute, at its 14th convocation held at Tummalapallivari Kshetrayya Kalakshetram.
The university also conferred degrees of graduation, post-graduation, super specialties, gold, silver medals and others on the occasion.
Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, who is also the Chancellor of the University, conferred the degrees on the candidates. Vice-Chancellor A.V. Krishnam Raju presented a report of the progress of the university in the last one year.
Registrar T. Venugopal Rao, deputy registrars and other officials were present.
‘Paradoxical situation'
Dr. Gullapalli N. Rao, who delivered the convocation address, said that excellence needed to be fostered by utilising all available resources in medical colleges in the country.
“We are facing a paradoxical situation right now. On the one hand our medical colleges are starved of good faculty. On the other hand we are not utilising most of the best talent in the country. This has to be rectified to prevent erosion of quality of medical education,” he observed.
Fundamental
Emphasising that healthcare and education were fundamental requisites for sustaining the prosperity of a nation, Dr. Rao highlighted enormous disparities existing in the standards of care in different sectors of medical care delivery.
The country's performance in the prevention of disease has been inconsistent going by the inability to sustain the important prevention programmes.
“Our immunisation rate hovers around only 60 per cent while it is 99 per cent in the neighbouring strife-torn Sri Lanka. A lot needs to be done to rectify the many maladies afflicting the healthcare system,” he observed.
Distinction
Dr. Krishnam Raju said that the State had the distinction of establishing the first university of health sciences in the entire country by fulfilling the recommendations of various committees.
There were just 24 colleges affiliated to the University at the time of its inception but the number increased to 336 now.
The university requires a site for its academic campus and also sufficient staff to bear the current work load.
Dr. Krishnam Raju informed the audience that Union Minister for Health Ghulam Nabi Azad was to attend the function as chief guest but he could not do so because of acute illness.
31 gold medals
As many as 31 endowment gold medals were given away to the students who excelled in different branches and specialisations of medicine.
