St Johns Medical College,Bangalore

About St Johns Medical College,Bangalore

Started in 1963 by the Catholic Bishop's Conference of India, St. John's has grown to be listed as one of the top medical educational institutions in the country. The Supreme Court of India, granting the privilege of conducting its own entrance test, declared St. John's Medical College as standing on a different footing altogether among the private medical colleges in the matter of admissions made strictly on the basis of merit. The National Assessment and Accreditation Council, a Review Committee of the University Grants Commission, has recognized the excellence of St. John's Medical College and Hospital and accorded it with a 5 star grading.
Reaching Out to the Medically Unreached

St. John's Medical College offers graduate, postgraduate, diploma and super specialty degrees recognized by the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), Bangalore, Karnataka. The mission orientation of the institution is to train healthcare professionals, especially to serve in the medically underserved areas of the country. Medical students execute a bond to serve in such areas for two years after their graduation. About 25% of them are permanently working in remote areas, and are committed to addressing the desperate health needs of these unreached rural populations.

At present, a total of 726 students are undergoing their training in Medicine and Paramedical courses. A total of 608 staff, both teaching and non-teaching are on the payroll of the College and rendering their services to the best of their abilities. Alumni and faculty of the institution hold eminent positions in various fields associated with medicine and health care, nationally and internationally.

The high quality of academic and research work undertaken by the qualified and dedicated teaching staff of the college has attracted grants from different parts of the world. The present number of 367 teaching staff work in the Preclinical, Paraclinical, Clinical and Super-specialty departments of the college and hospital.

he Catholic church in India had long felt the need of adding a Medical College to the many educational and social welfare institutions through which, over the years, it has served the country. However, the complexities such a venture involved, delayed its active consideration until the proposal was pursed by the Catholic Bishop's Conference of India. At the request of the C.B.C.I. the late Archbishop of Madras, Louis Mathias, prepared and presented a report in 1954, in which he reviewed the total requirement of the project. In 1956, Archbishop Mathias, with the aid of medical and financial experts, submitted a comprehensive scheme to the conference and in September 1960, the C.B.C.I. took the decision to establish a Medical College, with an attached hospital at Bangalore.

His Holiness Pope John XXIIIagreed to the college being called after his Patron, St. John the Baptist, as a mark of his personal interest in the project, and of his approval of its aims and ideals. The college was, accordingly, named "St. John's Medical College and opened in temporary premises at Bangalore in July 1963.

In the course of their Joint Pastoral issued in connection with the XXXVIII International Eucharistic Congress, held in Bombay in 1964, the Catholic Bishops of India announced their choice of the College Project as the Chief Memorial of the Congress. This choice received the warm approval of Pope Paul VI, which was conveyed by him in a special message addressed to Valerian Cardinal Gracias, the then President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India and President of the CBCI Society for Medical Education. The pope has also established a scholarship in the College in his own name, to be awarded, each year, to the best all round student completing the MBES course.

The cornerstone of the project was blessed by Pope Paul VI, at Bombay during the principal function of the Eucharistic Congress, held on December 3, 1964, at which he officiated. It was laid at the project site on July 27, 1965 by Shri V.V. Giri, the then Governor of Karnataka, and later, President of India. On the completion of the buildings, the College was dedicated to the cause of Medical Education, Research and Care, on September 29, 1968, at a ceremony presided over by the late President of India, Dr. Zakir Hussain.

Prior to the completion of these buildings, the College was located in the premises of St. Mary's Industrial School and Orphanage, which were made available by Archbishop Thomas Pothacamury of Bangalore for the teaching of pre clinical and para clinical subjects.

St. Martha's Hospital conducted by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd Congregation was affiliated to the College for Clinical Teaching. The Hospital was extended and suitably equipped for the purpose. This hospital provided a practical example of the spirit of service and sacrifice, which the College strives to make its own and carry beyond itself, to the homes of the patients and the community, both in the urban and in the rural areas. The affiliation of this Hospital to the College has been discontinued from 1983.

Campus: In June 1968, five years after its establishment, the College moved to its permanent campus on a 140 acres (57 ha) site situated in the periphery of the city of Bangalore. During the first phase of construction, the following were completed: the teaching centre (housing the preclinical and para clinical departments and lecture theatres); four blocks of students' hostel; and some residences for the teaching staff.

St. John's Medical College Hospital: The construction work of the second phase consisting of a 800 bed hospital, Nurses' hostel and residences of Staff was started in April 197 1. The out patient departments were opened on December 8, 1975. Thereafter, the in patient departments were opened gradually. With the third phase of construction completed in 1987, the campus has all the required facilities including a beautiful auditorium, with 1100 seats, from 1996, as a memorial of the Silver Jubilee of this Institution. At present St. John's Medical College Hospital has 1200 in patient beds, distributed among the Departments of General Medicine, General Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Psychiatry, Cardio Thoracic Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Ophthalmology, Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology, Dental Surgery, Genito Urinary Surgery, ENT diseases, Nephrology, Orthopedics, Intensive Care, Cardiac Care, Cardiology, Neurology, Neuro Surgery, Gastroenterology, Radiology, Radio immuno Assay and Hemo Dialysis. This is the teaching hospital of our College. C.T. Scan and Radio Therapy are now made available in the campus.

The College offursing is situated in the College & Hospital Sector. Started as a School of Nursing on July 1, 1980, it was raised to the stdtus of a College of Nursing on September 25, 1989 and conducts courses in General Nursing & Midwifery, Basic B.Sc., Post Certificate B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Nursing Courses in Medical Surgery, Community Health" Paediatrics and Obst. and Gynae.

St. John’s Medical College
Sarjapur Road
Bangalore – 560 034

Fax: 080-25531786