Government General Hospital

Government General Hospital or G.G.H. is a major hospital situated in Chennai, India. The hospital is funded and managed by the state Government of Tamil Nadu; hence it is state-owned. It was founded in 1664 by the British East India Company. In the 19th century, Madras Medical College joined it.

Early history

The Government General Hospital was started on 16th November 1664 as a small hospital to treat the sick soldiers of the British East India Company] . It was the untiring inspiring efforts of Sir Edward Winter who was the agent of the company that materialized in the first British Hospital at Madras.

In its early days, the Hospital was housed at the Fort St. George and in the next 25 years, it grew into a formal medical facility. Governor Sir Elihu Yale (the founder-father of the world-renowned Yale University) 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 long years before it could settle in the present permanent place in 1772. By the year 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 various dispensaries in the district head-quarters of the then Madras Presidency to assist the qualified doctors. By 1820, the institution had the recognition as the model hospital of the East India Company. In 1827, Dr. D. Mortimar was appointed as the Superintendent of the Hospital.

The Madras Medical College started off as a private medical hall run by Dr. Mortimar, and was regularised into a medical school in 1835, which was opened by the governor, Sir Frederick Adams. The governor then promulgated an ordinance to make the school a state-sponsored one and attached it to the General Hospital.

Current status

The hospital has a reputation of being one of the best in the state and ranks among the top ten in the Indian subcontinent.Fact|date=April 2008 The entire hospital block has been remodelled with the reconstruction of the massive twin towers. These replace the original hospital buildings, which were more than a century old.

The Supreme Head of the Hospital is the Dean, followed by the Deputy Superintendent.

Dispensaries attached to GGH

* Government Secretariat Dispensary
* Government High Court Dispensary
* Government Chepauk Offices Dispensary
* Government Estate Dispensary
* Government Raj Bhavan Dispensary