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| Victoria Hospital, Bangaluru |
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| Victoria Hospital, Bangaluru. en.wikipedia.org |
The Wodeyar royal family members, for a long period of time, were great rulers of Mysore kingdom, Being charitable and visionary, they introduced countless civil, agricultural and educational projects for the benefit of the natives there. In the area of health care, they had never fallen behind. As a princely ruler they were often well guided by eminent Dewans like Sir. Visveswarayah, Sir Rangacharlu, Sir Seshaderi Iyer, Thambuchetty and others.
Victoria Hospital, now being run by the Karnataka government came up in 1901. Now renamed Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute it is the largest hospital in Bangalore. The credit goes to the late Mysore Maharajah Shri Krishnaraja Wodeyar, who was instrumental in starting this college. One among the few prominent hospitals in South India, The hospital has been around more than 120 years catering to the people of Bengaluru and other places.
It was on 22 June 1897 the foundation stone of Victoria Hospital was by her highness Kempananjammani avaru, the then Maharani (queen) regent of Mysore to commemorate the completion of 60 years of reign of British Queen Victoria. Victoria Hospital was formally inaugurated on 8th December 1900 by Lord Curzon of Kedeleston (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925 the then Viceroy of India.
The hospital had a humble beginning with a small health clinic and just 140 beds. Located in Kalasipalam, today it is the second largest hospital in India and can accommodate over a thousand patients at a time. It is attached to Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute.
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| Victoria hospital, Bengaluru en.wikipedia.org |
This historical hospital steeped in history hall all the needed medical facilities right from handling emergency cases on 24 hour basis, burn injuries with a separate burns and plastic surgery departments including traumatology and emergency surgery Thanks to Infosys co who provided a centralized modern lab. The outpatient department in the Sir Puttanna Chetty block caters to the poor and needy people with free medicine, etc. has a pharmacy that supplies medicines free to poor patients. Provided with fine operation theaters with modern facilities, a dharmashala on the hospital campus gives subsidized accommodation for people accompanying patients.
Toward the end of Dec 2019 there was proposal by the state government to convert it into a 1000 bed hospital at an estimated cost of Rs. 68 crore. The hospital needs 1000 beds to match 250 UG medical students and 280 PG students. Already the Bowring hospital has been granted the status of a medical college, the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) is also pitching for the covetous status. The proposal includes a multi-story building with 30 ICU and the new structure will be constructed close to the old hospital building. The foundation stone for the building was already laid in 2019 and it is believed the entire project would be completed pretty soon.
The doctors feel that the new proposal of additional buildings and beds will reduce congestion and the urgency being faced by the medical teams, particularly, in the case of the Trauma and Emergency Centre.
