VISAKHAPATNAM: The LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) has proposed to establish a world-class iconic International School of Ophthalmology in Visakhapatnam. The hospital authorities have submitted a representation to Health minister Kamineni Srinivas during his visit to the city Monday, seeking allotment of 10-acre land to the institute.
The LVPEI of Visakhapatnam is a non-profit organisation established in July 2006 with an aim to provide quality eye care to all those in need and cater to the human resource needs of eye care delivery systems in India and developing countries across the world. The institute would put Visakhapatnam in the forefront of international eye care education on the global map.
“There is a huge shortage of adequately trained ophthalmologists and ancillary staff. In addition, training of ophthalmologists, paramedical and administrative staff involved in eye care in India and other developing countries lacks uniformity and conformity to international standards. As a consequence, the state-of-the-art eye care is not delivered to those in need,” said LVPEI-Visakhapatnam director Avinash Pathengay.
In his representation to the minister, Avinash said that the centre would train all cadres of ophthalmic professionals and provide direct and indirect opportunities for thousands of individuals. The proposal has been made to train hundreds of ophthalmologists and at least 1,000 paramedical and administrative staff every year. “We propose to have faculty and student exchange programmes by having MoUs with world renowned ophthalmology institutions, apart from developing research laboratories to develop low cost cutting edge innovation technology and provide it at the grassroots level,” he said. Further, he added that this would require collaboration with world scientists.
This state-of-the-art facility would have a minimum built up area of one lakh sft created in an eco-friendly green campus spread over 10-acre land. When fully operational, it would require `100 crore investment in phases.
The LVPEI officials have already submitted a petition to the then district collector V Sheshadri for allotment of land adjacent to the institute at a concessional rate in order to help complete their proposed project, but the issue has been pending with the government. The minister assured to look into the issue and take a decision in favour of the institute.
Major plans
The LVPEI has proposed to establish a world-class iconic International School of Ophthalmology in Visakhapatnam. The proposal has been made to train hundreds of ophthalmologists and at least 1,000 paramedical and administrative staff every year. Since its inception, over 5.03 lakh patients were treated at the LVPEI and over 57,613 surgeries were performed of which 50 per cent were done free for deserving patients.