Chennai’s trinity of eye specialists honoured
CHENNAI: The Madras City Ophthalmological Association presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to three renowned opthalmologists — Dr E T Selvam, retired Professor, late Dr J Agarwal, chairman of Dr E T Selvam, retired professor, Dr Amar Agarwal, son of late Dr J Agarwal, Dr S S Badrinath, chairman of Sankara Nethralaya.
CHENNAI: The Madras City Ophthalmological Association presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to three renowned opthalmologists — Dr E T Selvam, retired Professor, late Dr J Agarwal, chairman of Agarwal Eye Hospital and Dr S S Badrinath, chairman of Sankara Nethralaya — on Sunday..
Dr E T Selvam, who is called father of eye camps, was honoured for his role in taking eye camps to the rural areas in the country. He was a retired professor at Regional Institute of Ophthalmology and Government Ophthalmic Hospital (RIOGOH) and had served in government hospitals outside Madras, Thanjavur, Madurai, Tiruchy and Pudukottai.
Dr S S Badrinath, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1996 and Dr B C Roy National Award in 1991, returned to the city to start quality healthcare services when overseas employment for super-specialty medical professionals was at its peak.
Lauding the achievements of “the holy trinity” as they are called, Chief Secretary K S Sripathi said the State has become a centre of ophthalmology. He pointed out that in 2008-09, about 6,50,092 cataract surgeries were done in the State, of which 5,86,000 were performed by private institutions.
Meanwhile, even the government has spent a lot in eye care, he said. About 28,58,584 spectacles have been distributed to students from Class VI to VIII of all government schools to correct refractive errors.