PGI turns 50,has served 3.64 cr

As per the records maintained by the premier institute,since the day PGI threw open its doors for the public way back in 1963 till date,a whopping 3,48,87,077 patients have received treatment in OPDs alone. Besides,14,97,767 patients were admitted as In Patients for various surgeries and procedures.

With an annual footfall of 18 lakh patients in OPDs alone and another 68,000 admissions last year,the numbers are ever increasing and so is the level of patient satisfaction. So what keeps the institute going?

When PGI started operations way back in 1963 ,it had approximately 140 faculty members. Today that strength has grown to 500 besides about 1,100 resident doctors who work in tirelessly day in,day out to make the brand that it is now.

While the number of departments has also gone up in the past five decades from two dozen to about 46,certain others now have super-specialties and sub-specialties of specialties. In the beginning there was the General Medicine Department,which is now known as Internal Medicine Department.

Under General Medicine,there were the departments of cardiology,endocrinology,neurology,nephrology,dermatology,paediatrics,eye,ENT,gastroenterology and psychiatry. These departments have now evolved into specialised centres such as Advanced Pediatrics Centre,Advanced Kidney Unit,Advanced Cardiac Centre and Advanced Eye Centre. The Gastroenterology Department now has Hepatology as a separate department.

PGI was the first in India to start many DM and MCh courses,and PhD programmes in clinical sciences. The first DM course in hepatology and pulmonary medicine was started at PGIMER.