RajaRajeshwari Medical College and Hospital , Bangalore

RRMCH (estb. 2005) has rapidly built itself a good reputation for offering highly-valued medical education supplemented with practical experience in its 750-bed state-of-the-art teaching hospital

Promoted in 2005 on a 25-acre campus on the Bangalore-Mysore highway, the RajaRajesh- wari Medical College and Hospital (RRMCH) has rapidly built itself a good reputation for offering highly-valued medical education supplemented with hands-on practical experience in its 750-bed state-of-the-art teaching hospital constructed at a capital cost of Rs.200 crore. Approved by the Medical Council of India and affiliated with the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore, RRMCH offers a five-and-a-half-year undergraduate MBBS progra-mme to 500 students instructed by 200 faculty. Recently the college recorded an 88 percent pass percentage for its first batch of MBBS graduates.

“The RajaRajeshwari Medical College and Hospital is committed to producing not just academically qualified doctors but missionaries of health, sensitive to the therapeutic needs of the poor and downtrodden. Our strengths are our highly qualified and experienced faculty, and the special emphasis we place on delivering hands-on education. Given that most of our faculty work in the hospital, they are able to supplement their classroom teaching with real-life experiences and involve students in practical learning. Moreover, we are one of a handful of medical colleges in Karnataka with a fully-equipped teaching hospital. After four-and-a-half-years of study our students do their internship in our hospital sited within the campus,” says A.C. Shanmugam, a law graduate of Bangalore University and incumbent chairman of the Raja-Rajeshwari Group of Institutions. A former Tamil Nadu legislator and member of Parliament, Shanmugam is also the promoter-chancellor of the Dr. M.G.R. University, Chennai.

Promoted under the aegis of the Moogambigai Charitable and Educa-tional Trust (estb. 1992), the RajaRajeshwari Group comprises 30 higher education institutions with an aggregate enrolment of 30,000 students spread across Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. They include RajaRajeshwari Dental College and Hospital (estb.1992); RR College of Management Studies and Computer Applications (1999); Raja-Rajeshwari College of Nursing (2004); RajaRajeshwari School of Nursing (2004); RajaRajeshwari College of Engineering (2006); RajaRa-jeshwari College of Physiotherapy (2006) and ACS College of Engineering (2009).

However the group’s showpiece institution is RRMCH. Sited on a  sprawling landscaped campus, with a built-up area of 15 lakh sq.ft, the college boasts 21 departments including pathology, biochemistry, microbiology, surgery, general medicine, psychiatry, ophthalmology, forensic medicine and dermatology. Each of these departments offers contemporary seminar halls equipped with projectors and modern labs for practical work. For instance, the department of physiology is equipped with labs specialising in hematology and clinical physiology and boasts sophisticated gadgets such as spiro-meters, perimeters, ECG, EMG, Ergo Graph, and polygraphs.

Other academic infrastructure includes a well-equipped library with over 10,000 books, 100 international, national and 720 e-journal subscriptions; 24/7 internet access; audio-visual enabled classrooms; seminar halls; and a 500-seat auditorium. Moreover the multi-speciality teaching hospital with 750 beds hosts a blood bank and diagnostic laboratory.

“We strongly believe that our graduates must be sensitised to the needs of the poor and underprivileged. Our department of community medicine offers free medical treatment to poor patients from nearby villages. Moreover the departments of ophthalmology, general medicine, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynaecology, and pediatrics regularly organise health camps for villagers. At these camps, basic first aid is provided to patients, and those who require further treatment are referred to the hospital,” says Shanmugam who adds that recently in partnership with the state government a new Integrated Counseling and Test Centre for HIV positive patients has been inaugurated at the hospital.

Given the management’s strong emphasis on community service, it’s not surprising that students have launched several initiatives for the local community. A case in point is the Suraksha programme under which students collect money/donations for medical treatment of underprivileged patients. Under another initiative Yeshaswani, farmers from neighbouring villages are provided highly subsidised medical care and services. Plans are also being finalised to establish an epidemiology and health protection training centre to screen patients for chronic diseases such as TB and HIV under the Central government’s national rural health mission programme.

Committed to constant pedagogy innovation and improvement, the college management is looking to consolidate and expand RRMCH’s range of study programmes. “We want to introduce Master’s degree programmes and also establish a super speciality hospital in the next three years. Our goal is to become the most respected medical education and services provider in Karnataka. Since we have achieved most of the goals the RajaRajeshwari Group had set itself during the past seven years, we will attain this goal too,” says Shanmugam confidently.

Given the speed with which RRMCH has initiated and stabilised its operations within its early years, that doesn’t seem an empty promise.

T. Varoodhini (Bangalore)