Madras Medical College

History

The Government General Hospital was started on 16 November 1664 as a small hospital to treat the sick soldiers of the British East India Company.

In its early days, the hospital was housed at Fort St. George. In the next 25 years, it grew into a formal medical facility Governor Elihu Yale (the benefactor of the world-renowned Yale University) was instrumental in the development of the hospital and gave it new premises within the fort in 1690.

The hospital moved out of the fort after the Anglo-French War (1744-1748), and it took 20 years before it could settle in the present permanent place in 1772. By 1772, the hospital was training Europeans, Eurasians and natives in Western methods of diagnosis and treatment and methods of preparing medicines. These trained personnel were posted to dispensaries in the district headquarters of the then Madras presidency to assist the qualified doctors. By 1820, the institution had recognition as a model hospital of the East India Company. In 1827, Dr. D. Mortimar was appointed as the superintendent.

The college began as a private medical hall run by Mortimar and was regularised into a medical school in 1835, which was opened by the Governor Sir Frederick Adam. The school was then attached to the Government General Hospital and was sponsored by the state.

Indians were admitted into the school in 1842.

In 1850, the school council submitted proposals to the Government to accord the status of a college. On October 1, 1850, it was accorded this status, and was christened Madras Medical College.

The first batch of students graduated in 1852 and were granted the diploma of graduate of the Madras Medical College. In 1857, it gained affiliation to the University of Madras.

One of the first female doctors (one of the first four women students) in the world, Mary Scharlieb graduated from Madras Medical College in 1878, when women were not allowed to join medical colleges in Britain. At this time the first Indian woman doctor graduated from the institution: Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddi

In 1996, when the metropolis of Madras was renamed as Chennai, the college was renamed the Chennai Medical College. It was later re-renamed back to the Madras Medical College, since the college was known worldwide by the older name.

The college completed 175 years of its education in February 2010, which culminated with a grand function held at the college. The foundation stone for the new building of the college was laid by Honourable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Dr. Karunanidhi, on 28 February 2010.

In January 2011, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Dr.Karunanithi issued a G.O. and renamed the hospital as Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.

The college boast one of the first blood donors club (society) to be ever started in south Indian medical colleges. It formalised the blood donation for emergency and elective surgical operations whereby the medical students and the doctors of the college and the hospital registered their blood groups and provided blood to patients on top of the service to patients. This was started in 1983 by A.Vijay Kumar (currently a community surgeon in the UK)- a third year medical student then- who was elected as its first president under the guidance of professor Amirtharajan - professor of blood transfusion. the society was encouraged by then chief minister M.G. Ramachandaran and professor Arumugam, the dean of MMC. The presidency then got passed onto Shiva Kumar. Followed shortly after by A. Raj Kumar. Also, the blood donors club went under major regereation in 2009.

New campus

A new campus with a six-storeyed building for Madras Medical College was built on a land covering 325,000 square feet (30,200 m²) on the erstwhile central prison premises in 2010 and was completed in 2012. The campus will have nearly 1,250 students and 400 faculty and staff members. The campus was built at a cost of ₹ 566.3 million. Once the new campus starts functioning in late 2013, the existing MMC buildings will house the college of pharmacy, school of nursing and also accommodate students of the recently added courses of audiology, speech learning and pathology, radio therapy and radio diagnosis.

Affiliation

Since 1857, the college has been affiliated to the University of Madras and all degrees of Health Sciences were awarded by the same until 1988 when the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University Act, 1987 received the assent of the president of India. This affiliating university started functioning from July 1988 and is governed by the said Act.

The college was declared as an independent university called the Madras Medical College and Research Institute (MMC & RI). Later the status as an independent university was withdrawn shortly afterwards and the college was affiliated back to the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, dropping the suffix: "Research Institute" in 2000.

Institutions attached to Madras Medical College

Ranking

In the India Today ranking of medical colleges for 2013, Madras Medical College was ranked 7th. It has been ranked 19 by Careers360's ranking of top medical colleges in India 2016.

Cultural events

Madras Medical college hosts inter-college cultural extravaganza known as "REVIVALS" and the annual inter-medical sports meet known as "ENCIERRO". Apart from this, it also hosts annual intracollege cultural event known by the name " KALAIOMA" and the annual intracollege sports event.

Administration

The college and hospital are funded and managed by the state government of Tamil Nadu. The head of the institution is the dean followed by the vice-principal.

Notable alumni

Notable faculty