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 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, 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.
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