Beginning its journey to the new Millennium Gandhi Medical College , Bhopal was inaugurated on 13th of August 1955 by Pt. Lal Bahadur Shashtri. The college started its functioning in the building of the Polytechnic with first batch of 50 students and 2 Departments i.e. Anatomy & Physiology. After a period of one year the foundation of its own building was laid by Union Minister of Home Shri Govind Ballabh Pant on 15th September 1956 . It took seven long years for this immense task to complete and this beautiful piece of architecture and craftsmanship came in existence housed in the historic Forte of Fatehgarh, on 13th of March 1963 to be inaugurated by the first Prime Minister of India Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru. The Fatehgarh Fort stood on the crescent of the Upper Lake in 1722, now stands Gandhi Medical College. The former fought the enemy & the successor fights disease – the aim is common but target differs.
The foundation stone of the Surgical and Medical wards (Kamla Nehru Block) was laid by Rajkumari Amrit Kaur on 6th March 1955, and foundation of Boys hostel was laid by the King of Nepal Maharaja Mahendra Bir Vikram Shah Deo on 18th of November 1955.
Gents and Ladies Hospitals were established as Prince of Wales Hospital for men and Lady Linlithgo Hospital for women. True to the saying “old order changeth yielding place to new”, the hospital changed names with change of reigns. Price of Wales Hospital became Hamidia Hospital & Lady Linlithgo became Sultania Zanana Hospital. Both are integral part of Gandhi Medical College as of today. Lady Bhore Centre opposite Fire Brigade, Fatehgarh caters to antenatal & child welfare activities in addition to Preventive and Social Medical Counseling.
The College started teaching with 50 students in the first batch and celebrated its Silver Jubilee in 1980 from 22-24 December by the time 2549 Graduates, 525 Postgraduates, and 230 Diploma students were through its portal. Now 23 Departments with multi faceted Faculty along with the Medico legal Institute, Regional Eye Institute and Cardiac Sciences Centre are well established, Post Graduate Courses in almost all the specialties and Post Doctoral Course in Pediatric Surgery are ongoing and a Post Doctoral Course in Cardio thoracic Surgery is about to be commenced.
A major breakthrough was achieved in the administration on 4th of January 1997 when the College attained Autonomy.
Taking a lesson from the brilliant history and in quest of a brighter future, the task just seems to have begun.
