Gandhi Medical College and Hospital

Gandhi medical college is one of the premier medical colleges in the state of Andhrapradesh, India.It came in to being on 14th september 1954.It is located in Hyderabad, at Musheerabad.

Academics

Primary among the courses offered by the institute in affiliation with the Dr.NTR university of health sciences are:

1. MBBS
2. MD/MS
3. DM/MCh
4. BSc courses in Nursing, Paramedical and medical specialities

admissions

MBBS

The admissions are based on the rank in EAMCET( Engineering, Agricultural and Medical common entrance test).The admissions are conducted by the Dr.NTR University of health sciences, the parent university for this college.

History

Gandhi Medical College came into being on 14th September 1954 AD. This was the second medical college in the erstwhile state of Hyderabad. The Osmania medical college was the first medical college in the Hyderabad state having started as a medical school in 1846 AD and made a college in 1926 AD. There were two medical colleges in Andhra region of erstwhile Madras State at that time. First was Andhra medical college at Vishakapatnam which started in 1923 AD and Guntur medical college was the second in that region having opened in 1946 AD. There were three other medical colleges in Madras State, which accepted students from Andhra region. They were Madras medical college which is now known as Chennai medical college and Research Institute and it started in 1835 AD to be followed closely by Stanley medical college in 1838 AD. 1835 AD was the beginning of allopathic medical education in the country and Calcutta medical college was started first in the same year few months earlier to that of Madras medical college. Christian medical college at Vellore was opened in the year 1942 AD. Thus Gandhi medical college was the second in Hyderabad State, fourth in Andhra Pradesh and 29th in the country. Gandhi is celebrating its golden jubilee this year and now there are 162 recognized medical colleges in India with an annual intake of 18385 seats. Another 36 colleges were permitted to be opened in the country with annual admissions totaling 3750 seats in these new colleges. Thus annual undergraduate medical admissions are over 22000 in India. Intake of students to Gandhi medical college per year is 150 for MBBS Degree Course. Postgraduate seats are 88 per year, which includes clinical, non-clinical and super specialty subjects. These courses lead to 37 degrees in various branches of medicine. It may be worth recalling that postgraduate courses in medicine were started in Osmania medical college only in 1957AD and students were posted under the Gandhi teachers from 1958 AD till 1976 AD. Separate selection and posting of postgraduate students into Gandhi began in the year 1976 AD. According to 1951 census the population of Hyderabad state was 18655108. Three regions of the state were Telengana, Marathwada and Karnataka. In 1954 recognized medical qualifications were Andhra-M.B.B.S., M.D. Medicine, M.S. Surgery, & L.M.S. (Licentiate in medicine and surgery). Osmania-M.B.B.S., L.M.S (Osmania); L.M.P (Hyderabad)-Licensed medical practitioner. There were only 100 admissions of medical students to Osmania medical college in 1954. Hence Hyderabad branch of the Indian medical association and Anwar-lu-lum Educational society of Hyderabad had under consideration to start the new medical college with its own hospital. The scheme was estimated to cost 50 lakhs of rupees initially and 15 lakhs every year. The association expected that public would contribute 10 lakhs. On September 12th 1954 Col. Waghray and other members of the Indian medical association explained the need for another medical college and hospital of 1000 beds. Col.Waghrey explained that the government promised to upgrade one or two local hospitals for the benefit of the proposed new college. The beginning of our college on 14th September also heralded red letter day for the advancement of medical education in our country. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur was the central minister for medical and health in the country. She announced in the parliament that day that center would provide funds for the upgradation of ten medical departments in the India. These were-anatomy dept. Stanley, Ob-gyn and VD depts of Madras, chest hospital in Delhi, Institute of hygiene and public health of Calcutta, thoracic surgery unit at Vellore, neurosurgery at K.E.M.Bombay, Indian cancer institute at Bombay, physiology at Patna and mental hospital at Bangalore. On 25th June 1955 our college that was renamed as Gandhi medical college and had the honor to have been inaugurated by the first president of India Dr.Rajendra Prasad. The others who were present at the function were B.Ramakrishna Rao, the chief minister of Hyderabad state, Mehdi Nawaz Jung, health minister, Dr. G. S. Melkote, Labour and PWD minister, Dr. Shankar Rao Jadhav and Dr.V.G.Borgaonker, on behalf of Indian medical association, Hyderabad branch and founder principal Dr. Nizamuddin. Dr. Rajendra Prasad in his address spoke of the people’s commitment to preserve the hard won independence for India and their need for qualified and well-trained doctors for the treatment of diseases. IMA donated 75000 rupees for the college on that occasion. Dr. Melkote handed over the buildings and premises at Bashirbagh to our College which belonged to the PWD department. By 1956 college faced difficult financial position, as the expected donations from public did not materialize. The first MBBS examination for the 140 students became doubtful. It was the effort of two people namely Dr. Mohd. Nizamuddin, principal of the college and Col. Waghrey, that the government of Hyderabad State agreed to take over the college and develop it. Dr.Nizamuddhin was a British trained chest physician who worked at TB hospital in Erragadda. Col.Waghray (1894-1964AD), Lucknow medical graduate, did MRCP from London and served in the second world war in the Middle East. He was the personnel physician to the king Mir Osman Ali Khan (1886-1967) and he used his personnel rapport with the chief minister Burgula Ramakrishna Rao to take over the college from private management. Dr.Rao was the first chief minister of Hyderabad State after first general elections in the country in 1952. Health minister was Nawab Mehdi Nawaz Jung Bahadur (1894-1967) and director of medical education was Dr.Khatri who also happened to be the first Indian superintendent of K.E.M.hospital. All these people played their helpful roles in the acquisition of college by the government. Our college when started in 1954 was named as Peoples medical college. It was located at Humayun nagar close to the present Sarojini Devi eye hospital. It remained there till it was shifted to Basheer bagh in 1958. This building later became the residence of our alumni Prem, Asha and Sunitha Rupani. The building belonged to Nawab Zulf Quader Jung who happened to be the last home secretary in Nizam’s Government before independence. Prem Rupani belonged to 1972 batch while Asha Chhablani and Sunita Motiani were of 1962 and 1974 batches respectively. The building has been demolished and nothing remains of the college now. Gandhi medical college building in Basheer Bagh has a chequered past. It was built in 1890 by Paighas for supervision and maintenance of Basheer bagh palace and later housed the city improvement board and this can be seen in the small plaque located to the left of the entrance to the office building. It had Mughal and Rajasthani architectural features. City improvement board looked after the maintenance of palaces of Nizam. After these buildings were transferred to the college new lecture hall blocks were built at the new premises at Basheer Bagh. These were inaugurated by chief minister Dr.Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy on 31st August, 1958. Dr. K.N.Rao, director of medical services entertained the idea of integrating both Osmania and Gandhi medical colleges at the new complex which was coming up at Koti then. It was Sanjeeva Reddy who prevailed upon and said that each college would be separate, as they would be too unwieldy at one place. Further improvements to the college were added over the years and the foundation stones tell the story. Gandhi medical college has been shifted to new premises at Musheerabad in 2003 and the foundation stone for this was laid by Sri N.T.Rama Rao on 1st May, 1987 . The Students of the College, Alumni and the well wishers of the college had to prevail upon the government to build the college and the hospital at Musheerabad. The foundation for the new complex at Musheerabad was laid on 19 June, 2001 by Sri N. Chandrababu Naidu. Gandhi medical college has departments of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, forensic medicine, microbiology, pathology, pharmacology and social and preventive medicine. Gandhi hospital began as an infirmary with three wards in 1851AD and these were general, maternity and pauper houses. It was known as cantonment hospital and also as civil hospital with 95 beds at the beginning of 20th century. The hospital was developed with funds from the philanthropists and was named K.E.M.hospital in memory of King Edward VII. S.M.Fraser who was the British resident opened the hospital on 20th December 1917 AD. The architect and engineer of new building complex with beautiful staircase was F.M.B. Rosenthal. KEM had peculiar sounding wards such as Female Ward for Parsis, Caste Female Wards and European Ward and so on. KEM was renamed as Gandhi hospital in 1958 AD to become the teaching hospital for the college. In 1956 the bed strength of the hospital was 310 which was raised to 400 by the year 1961. There was very efficient nursing services rendered by the renowned mothers and nuns of Roman Catholic mission. These nurses regarded the services as a part of the religious duty. In the beginning the lecture hall was close to the railway line with the noise from shunting of passenger coaches and goods wagons. The sirens of incoming and out going trains were another noise that the students of earlier batches remember. Over the years it developed into a 1012-bedded teaching hospital. Hospital has been shifted into new premises at Musheerabad this year. Average annual outpatient consultations are about 80000 and inpatient admissions are about 42000.11000 major operations and about 15000 minor operations are performed each year at Gandhi hospital. Hospital has 27 departments namely: general medicine, general surgery, pediatrics, orthopedics, anesthesia, dermatology, leprosy, sexually transmitted disease, ophthalmology, E.N.T., radiology, Casuality, blood bank, cardiology, neurology, nephrology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, Cardio-thoracic surgery, neurosurgery, pediatric surgery, plastic surgery, urology, TB clinic, dental, obgyn, psychiatry and hospital administration. The year in which the some departments started were as follows: 1960 : ENT, General surgery orthopedic surgery. 1968 : Cardiology. 1969 : Cardio-thoracic surgery. 1971 : Neurosurgery. 1975 : ICCU.1976: mobile iccu, pediatric surgery, neurology, MCh neurosurgery. 1977 : Cardiac catheter lab. 1979 : Urology. 1985 : Gastroenterology. 1991 : MCh cardio-thoracic surgery. 1993 : Plastic surgery and nephrology. 1998 : Psychiatry. During the 50 years i.e. 1954-2003 a total of 6090 students were admitted to the MBBS course. The number of students admitted ranged between a minimum of 42 in 1954 to a maximum of 224 in 1968.In one-year i.e. 1970 there were no admissions. In recent years the admissions are around 150 per year. There are some students who may have been transferred from other medical colleges to Gandhi and very few left medical studies to pursue other avenues in life.

' THE GROWTH OF HOSPITAL AND COLLEGE''

Late 50's and 1960’s seen the consolidation of college and hospital. Except a few all heads of units were British trained. They were great teachers and surgeons. Surgical unit consisted of Dr.G.Subba Rao, Dr.K.R.Prasada Rao, Dr.Balakrishna Reddy and P.Ram Reddy. Dr.Subba Rao was a great surgeon and an able administrator. He was very strict and even a CM Sri Sanjeevayya was stopped by the watchman when he visited hospital during non-visiting hours. Dr. Prasada Rao was a great teacher of surgery and his classes were a great experience. Dr. Ram Reddy performed first thoracic surgery operations at Gandhi. Though Dr. Balakrishna Reddy’s stay was short at Gandhi he was a pioneer plastic surgeon. Dr.N.R.V.Swamy, Dr.G.Narsingh Rao and Dr.Ramdas headed medical units. They were all great clinicians and teachers with individual styles. Dr. Narsingh Rao was a British trained neurologist having worked in Queensquare, London under Lord Russell Brain. Dr.Rao is still active and does lot of service at Puttaparthi. Dr.T.S.R.Murthy was the American trained orthopedic surgeon and another USA trained was ENT surgeon Dr.Acharyulu. Dr.Krishnamurthy was the other ENT surgeon. The Obgyn had two stalwarts in Dr.Surti and Dr.J.V.Desai. Over the years college had many popular teachers. During the early days the college had the expertise of great principals like Dr.Bankat Chandra, Dr.D.V.Subba Reddy, Dr.M.Y.Ansari, Dr.Surti, Dr.Narsingh Rao etc. In recent years the tenure of the principals is so short that they are not able to contribute much to the development of the college. The physical growth of the college and hospital can be gleaned from the foundation stones and the photographs of that era. Tactful handling of the visiting British medical team by Dr.Surti got recognition for Gandhi students to get full registration with British medical council in early 1960’s.This happened long before many other medical colleges in the state were recognized by that body in U.K. This helped lot of our students going to U.K. and some from there proceeded to U.S.A. 1970’s seen the growth of super specialties like cardiology, cardio-thoracic surgery, neurology and neurosurgery. It was no surprise that first open-heart surgery in the state was conducted at Gandhi and the team can be seen in the photograph. Dr.C.R.Rajagopalan and Dr.Hyder Khan were people who gave a lead to the development of these specialties in the state. There was an active Neurosurgery Department at Gandhi.

NON MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF ALUMNI''''

Alumni of the college who are scattered around the world contributed to the advancement of medicine. Some made a mark in academic sphere and notable names are: Dr. Sudhakar Rao of Henry Ford hospital of Detroit, Dr. P.S. Reddy of Pittsburgh University, Dr. Maya Suresh of Baylor University college of medicine and Dr. Y. Ravindranath of Wayne State Detroit and so on. There are many that made a mark in fields other than medicine. Dr. Dandavate was a popular tabala Player who not only performed in cultural activities but also regularly gave performances on All India Radio. M. Janardhan Reddy of 1957 batch left medicine and did masters and Ph.D. in English and became a popular English teacher. Dr. Prasada Rao made a mark as a journalist. Dr. V. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who never practiced medicine and became an industrialist and supplies specialised carbon for use by the Indian Army and Nuclear Power Stations. Many joined politics and became ministers like Dr. Geetha Reddy, Dr. Vijaya Mohan Rao. There were some that were MLA’s and MP’s like Dr.Lingiah, Dr.Jagannadam, Dr.Alladi Raj Kumar and Dr.Pratap Reddy became leading Telugu desam politician. Dr. D. Raja Reddy developed interest in numismatics. He became president of the south Indian numismatic society of Chennai and also received the M.Rama Rao medal of the numismatic society of India. Miss Khursheed Ramiah of 1961 Batch joined the Silver Screen. Dr. Srinivas became a noted social worker in his area in U.K. Dr. K. Hari Prasad, represented Ranji Trophy and also participated in Moinuddaula matches.

--99xtreme 00:21, 24 May 2007 (UTC) 'Bold text' --99xtreme 00:21, 24 May 2007 (UTC)