BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT
(COLLEGE & HOSPITAL)

In view of the ever increasing population of the city of Chandigarh, a second 500-bedded General Hospital had become a necessity not only for catering to the needs of patients in the southern sectors of the city but also to cater for patients from the satellite townships of Panchkula and SAS Nagar. The first 500-bedded General Hospital in sector 16 remains choked with the flow of patients from the first phase sectors of the city and the surrounding states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and western parts of Uttar Pradesh. The Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, located in sector 12, Chandigarh was conceived as a premier referral centre for the northern states of India.

The second General Hospital in Sector 32 had been planned to serve the second phase sectors, thereby relieving pressure on General Hospital, Sector 16 and Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), so that the latter could serve as a first rate referral hospital.

Chandigarh, best educational facilities in the country. Besides the Panjab University and the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, it has an Engineering College, College of Arts, College of Architecture, a number of Government and Private Degree Colleges and other prestigious and important research institutions. Somehow, the city had lacked a Medical College for graduate studies, i.e. MBBS. The deficiency was most glaring. GMC provides opportunity of a career in medicine to many promising students who were denied of this opportunity because of ‘domicile’ restrictions imposed by the states in which these colleges are located.

BROAD OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

2. To provide out-patient, in-patient and round the clock maternity and emergency care services of all basic and supportive general specialties. These services would be provided free to the poor whereas the more affluent component of the society will add gradually to the government revenue.

3. To provide round the clock facilities of intensive care unit, coronary care unit, burns unit and neonatal intensive care unit.

4. To provide round the clock state of the art diagnostic services/facilities in clinical pathology, including blood bank, clinical biochemistry, microbiology and radiology, including ultrasound and CT scan.

5. To provide few specialised services in clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic fields like in cardiology, pulmonology, nephrology, neonatology, neurosurgery, urology, plastic surgery and burns, etc.

6. To act as a free medical institution for direct/first level contact for patients and also as a secondary level referral centre for the referred cases from nearby smaller/large hospitals (Government/private), health centres, polyclinics and dispensaries situated in North India.

7. To act, specifically, as a regional overflow multi-disciplinary institution (north region) for the referred cases by linking horizontally with other peripheral 100 bedded and 500 bedded general hospitals in the north, with other major teaching institutions and larger multi-disciplinary hospital situated in other parts of Chandigarh.

8. To reduce considerably the present workload of other hospitals, especially the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh and thereby offer maximum relief to the economically weaker section and middle section of the people residing in rural and semi-urban areas of Chandigarh.

9. To participate in various national health programmes, including National Family Welfare Programme, by linking with various Government/private hospitals and health centres(horizontally and vertically) and providing necessary infrastructure and facilities as per their demands.

10. To fulfill the glaring deficiency of an undergraduate Medical College in the Union Territory of Chandigarh which offers the best educational facilities in all other fields. The Government Medical College will be attached to the teaching hospital.

11. To act as a centre for Continuing Medical Education Programmes for various categories of technical and non-technical personnel of different disciplines working within and from other various sized hospitals.

12. To render facilities for conducting research activities relating to different specialties, as and when required.

13. Last but not the least the hospital, as a measure for future expansion, in response to the changing trend in hospital services, would also provide facilities/services (clinical, diagnostic, therapeutic) of various other specialties in future depending upon the real needs of the population.

The Government Medical College, Chandigarh was started during the year 1991 in pursuance of the No Objection Certificate issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, vide their U.O.No. 12013/31-90ME(P) dated 15-01-91. The defacto Government Medical College was started in the Prayaas building, Sector 38, Chandigarh after the foundation stone laying ceremony was performed by the former Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Chandra Shekhar on 20 January, 1991 in Sector 32 on the quilt of 36.09 acre of land allotted by the Chandigarh Administration. In the first instance, the construction for this College and Hospital was started with the outlay of Rs. 100.00 Lac earmarked in the annual plan for 1991-92.

The hospital building is being constructed with the highest specifications available in the country so that it can be kept hygienically clean and relatively infection free, in the patient’s interests. Crevices, projections and other designs, which can collect dust and cobwebs, have been avoided in the construction. Such infection harboring designs have been eliminated.