Mardas Medical College

The Government General Hospital, one of the premier Institutions in the country was started on 16th November 1664 as a small Hospital to treat the sick soldiers of the East India Company. It was the untiring inspired efforts of Sir Edward Winter who was the agent of the company that materialised 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 grew into a formal medical facility. Governor Sir. Elihy Yale was instrumental in the development of the Hospital and gave it a new premises with in 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 allopathic methods of diagnosis and treatment and methods of preparing medicines. These trained personnel’s 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. So in 1827 Dr. D.Mortimar was appointed as the Superintendent of the Hospital

A private medical hall run by Dr. Mortimar was regularised as a medical school and it was opened by Sir Fredrick Adams, the then Governor of Madras on 2nd February 1835. The Governor promulgated an order to make the school a state sponsored one and attached it to the General Hospital.In 1842 the Hospital opened its doors to Indians. In the next two decades, the teaching staff had increased, the duration of the course extended and the curriculum was made comprehensive. Senior courses spanning 5 years was started and private people were also admitted for the first time in the institution.

The first Indian Women to join MMC was Krupabai (Krubai) Sathianathan.  She topped the 1^st year but ill health forced her out.  But later she turned out to be a renowned writer.  In her name exists an endowment for a scholarship for a native Indian but not of European or Eurasian decent.  More women joined in 1884.  Abala Das, Rose Govindarajulu and Gurdial Sing were the first Indian Women to receive LMS in 1888.

Muthulakshmi Reddy became the first Indian Woman (Mrs.A.M. Vangngen a burgher from Ceylon was the first Women) to get a Medical degree from University of Madras in 1912.  She went on to establish the cancer institute of Adyar.

The institution holds the pride of place in having produced the first lady Doctor in the English speaking World and also the first Indian lady Doctor to graduate from this School.

Madras Medical College and Government General Hospital
E.V.R Periyar Salai ,
Park Town,
Chennai – 600 003

email : mmcadmin@tn.gov.in
Phone :   044 – 2530 5000