Tamale, Dec. 14, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufour on Saturday pledged Government's commitment to give the necessary support to University for Development Studies (UDS) Medical School in Tamale to attain the required standards.

He said it was central to government's determination to develop health care delivery in the northern sector of the country and efforts would be made to train medical personnel for the areas. President Kufuor made the pledge in a speech read on his behalf by Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister at the Ninth Congregation of UDS in Tamale.

Eleven out of the 1,270 students who graduated had first class honours, 386 had second class upper and 804 had second class lower while nine had third class.

President Kufuor said government would continue to explore and deepen the existing protocol with the Cuban Government to recruit competent professionals for the clinical stages of the medical programme.

He said Government would support the clinical phase of the programme at UDS to ensure students were no longer sent to Komfo Anokye and Korle-Bu Teaching Hospitals in Kumasi and Accra to complete their programmes.

President Kufuor said the management of National Council for Tertiary Education had informed Government about the special recruitment needs of UDS to meet full accreditation, expansion and quality requirement and efforts were being made to liaise with Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to provide UDS the needed support. He expressed concern about the financial malfeasance in UDS last year, and wondered how a deprived institution could be reckless in the disbursement of its meagre resources. President Kufuor expressed appreciation to the University Council and management for instituting measures to recover all the monies and prevent its occurrence in future.