The historic Guntur Medical College is gearing up to celebrate its Platinum Jubilee this year.
Established in 1946 thanks to the efforts of Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu, the GMC is the second oldest college in the State.
Land for the college was donated by Achanta Rukminnamma Lakshmipathi and the foundation stone for the college was laid on December 13, 1953. Then Chief Minister Bejawada Gopala Reddy laid the foundation stone for the administrative block in 1955.
The MBBS course in the college was started in 1946 with just two departments, Physiology and Biochemistry, and the students were sent to Andhra University for clinical courses. The present strength of MBBS courses is 250. In addition, there were 123 PG seats and 12 super-speciality seats available. The GGH, which is the teaching hospital for GMC, has a bed strength of 1,170, 402 teaching staff, 27 PG departments and 9 super speciality departments. Proposals have been sent to the National Medical Commission to enhance the PG seats to 217.
The college has several remarkable achievements and has produced several outstanding doctors like Bhupathiraju Somaraju, founder of Care Hospitals, and orthopaedic surgeon A.V. Gurava Reddy.
In 1997, to mark the golden jubilee of the college, a pylon was inaugurated by then Prime Minister H.D. Deva Gowada.
The GMC is also enriched by its alumni who formed an association called Guntur Medical College Association of North America (GMCANA), and have partnered with the State Government in building the super speciality and trauma care facility adding to the old GGH. A beautiful auditorium was also built with the help of donations from GMCANA.
“The pylon is being built with the support of students of the 1975 batch. We hope that the college would be further strengthened by support from the State government,” said GMC principal Ch. Prabhavathi Devi.
