Silchar Medical College and Hospital

Name :

Silchar Medical College and Hospital

Address  :

Ghungoor

Town  :

Silchar

State  :

Assam

Country  :

INDIA

Post Code:

788014

Phone  :

03842-229112

Web URL  :

Available

Email  :

smc-asm@nic.in

Description

The Silchar Medical College and Hospital was established in the year 1968 Since its inception the SMC Hospital is rendering its yeomens services to the suffering community of the entire southern part of Assam and its neighbouring states In the year 1971 the Civil Hospital of Silchar situated in the heart of the city about 6 kms away from the permanent college building was taken over as the teaching hospital of the Silchar Medical College Thereafter in 197778 the main hospital building complex at its permanent site was commissioned

History

Inception and earlier years

Before Indian independence people from Assam and other North Eastern states had to go to other states for medical education and advanced medical treatment Dr John Berry White MRCS a British Surgeon of the East India Company was the pioneer to start Health Education and health care in Assam He established a medical school known as Berry White Medical School at Dibrugarh Assam in 189899 with a donation of Rs 50000 a magnificent amount at that time In course of time this medical school was upgraded and on 3rd Nov1947 the Assam Medical College Dibrugarh was established and it stands as the first medical college in Assam

While the other states had several medical colleges Assam remained with only one The need for more medical colleges in Assam was keenly felt The State Govt in 1959 headed by the then Chief Minister of Assam Mr B P Chaliha the then Finance Minister Mr Fakaruddin Ali Ahmed and the then Health Minister of Assam Mr Rupram Brahma decided to have a second medical college in Assam

On 7th Nov 1959 the State Govt set up an expert committee to go into the matter and submit their report The expert committee comprised of the following members 1 Dr Basudev Narayan member of the medical Council of India which in turn was constituted in 1933 and also the Principal of Kakinda Medical College He was the chairman of the committee 2 Dr A B Dasgupta Medical Secretary 3 Dr B L Choudhury Director of Health Services DHS Assam 4 Dr R I Cunvill Director of Pasteur Institute Shillong 5 Dr S N Sarma Principal Assam Medical College Dibrugarh 6 Dr G S Das MLA Guwahati 7 Dr B Bhattacharyya Silchar 8 Raisahab Apurba Dutta Silchar and 9 Dr U C Bardoloi Retired Director of Health Services Guwahati

The above committee members visited different parts of the state had consultation with representatives of the different strata of the society and ultimately recommended Gauhati now Guwahati which is the gateway of Assam as the most suitable place for the second medical college in Assam But the committee also found a cause to have a 3rd medical college in the Barak valley at Silchar and a 4th medical college at Tezpur in the north bank of Brahmaputra river This subsequently lead to the birth of the Gauhati Medical College at Guwahati and the Silchar Medical College at Ghungoor Silchar

The State Govt decided to have both the Gauhati Medical College and the Silchar Medical College simultaneously from August 1960 So a second technical expert committee was formed on 6thApril 1960 to go into the details with the following members

1Dr B L Choudhury DHS

2Dr S N Sarma Principal Assam Medical College AMC Dibrugarh

3Dr I Jahan Prof of Physiology AMC Dibrugarh

4Dr O Lyngdoh Prof of Anatomy AMC Dibrugarh

5Mr Pundarikakhya Sarma Chief Engineer Public Health

After several rounds of discussions the committee visited the sites at Ulubari Jalukbari Chandmari and other areas of the city of Guwahati and also different parts of Silchar The committee submitted its report on 26th April1960 stating that it was feasible to start the Gauhati Medical College from August 1960 in the vacant Ayurvedic College buildings and the Physical Education Training buildings at Jalukbari Guwahati but no such place was immediately available at Silchar to start the Silchar Medical College The committee recommended Ulubari for Gauhati Medical College and Ghungoor for Silchar Medical College to be the permanent sites

So the State Govt decided to start the colleges with preclinical classes in the vacant buildings of the Ayurvedic College at Jalukbari Guwahati with 60 students for Gauhati Medical College and 40 students for Silchar Medical College as a twin college

In the last week of September1960 the first batch of the 100 students were interviewed and selected in the AMC Dibrugarh Preclinical classes were started from 10th October 1960

Dr I Jahan was appointed professor incharge of the college in addition to his own duties as Prof amp HOD of Physiology Thus the Gauhati Medical College GMC took its start under the stewardship of Professor I Jahan

Professor SNSarma was transferred from AMC Dibrugarh and he took over the charge of the Office of the Principal Gauhati Medical College on 3rd June 1961

Paraclinical and clinical departments were started in the Civil Hospital Campus at Panbazar Guwahati since April 1962

In the 1st MBBS examination held in 1962 under the Gauhati University in which the AMC Dibrugarh was also included as many as nine students from GMC secured the first nine positions in the merit list The Medical Council of India inspected the college during the final MBBS examination held in 1965 The IMC inspector highly praised the standard of examination

Meanwhile the construction of the buildings for the Silchar Medical College was started at its permanent site at Ghungoor Silchar and the College was inaugurated in its permanent building on 15th August 1968 and thereby the twin got separated The admission to the MBBS course was 50 students annually Prof Rudra Goswami took over the charge on 1st August 1968 to be the first principal of the Silchar Medical College

The professional courses started in the Boys Hostel NoII in a makeshift manner and the Civil Hospital Silchar was taken over as its hospital in the year 1971 Thereafter in the year197778 the main hospital building complex was commissioned

In the year 1985 PostGraduate courses were introduced in 5 clinical subjects viz
1 General Medicine

2General Surgery

3Obstetrics amp Gynaecology

4Ophthalmology

5Otorhinolaryngology

The annual admission capacity in MBBS course was also raised from 50 to 65 students in the same year