It was a convention in the small town of Burdwan on 13 July 1907 where the decision was made to build up a hospital in the Burdwan town. In this respect, the Frazer Hospital was inaugurated on 9 November 1910 with 127 indoor beds. Ronaldshay Medical School was formed in 1921. However, it was closed in 1958 as per the recommendation of the Bhore committee 1947 in the independent India. Later, the proposal of establishing a Medical College at Burdwan was put. That time the Chief Minister of West Bengal was Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy who agreed to the proposal. People of Burdwan still remembers thank the visionaries like District board chairperson Jitendtranath Mitra, Maharajkumar Abhaychand, Dr. Narottam Samanta, Dr. Sailendranath Mukhopadhyay, Dr. Sailendranath Bhattacharya for development of medical infrastructure in Burdwan. The Frazer Hospital was renamed to Bijoy Chand Hospital or ‘BC Hospital’ which was named after the ‘Maharajadhiraj’ of Burdwan, Bijoy Chand Mahtab. It remained as the district hospital of Burdwan till it was attached to Burdwan Medical College and renamed as the Burdwan Medical College Hospital. The ‘grand’ century old red coloured building of the BC Hospital is still a part of the present hospital and attracts a sense respect in the minds of the medicos as well as general people. The initially approved beds when it was converted into a teaching hospital were 759. Gradually, it increased to 1099 number of sanctioned beds at present. The patient load in this hospital always remained very high and the patients from nearby 5-6 districts and neighboring states also visit this hospital. For an example, only the number of deliveries in the hospital reached nearly 25,000/ year. Renovation and up-gradation of several departments are done in the recent past and many works are under progress. The growing need of the people has raised concern in the minds of the administration and there is lot to be done. The whole hospital provides free of cost treatment as per the present policy of the Government and there is no paying or private bed in the hospital. Other than the original hospital campus, an annex campus is now there as the Super-specialty hospital, at Bamchandaipur on the NH2. This campus is approximately 7–8 km from the main hospital and is developed after modifying the Anamoy Gramin Hospital. Presently the Cardiology and Neurology wards are located in this campus with indoor, OPD, Cath lab, CT Scan and Pharmacy facilities. However, emergency patients are admitted only after referral from the main hospital. Post-doctoral trainees of Cardiology and Neurology gets there training here.
College
Today’s Burdwan Medical College was established as 'Burdwan University Medical College' by the University of Burdwan in 1969. It was a humble beginning in a hollow brick building. Foundation was laid down by the then Honourable Health Minister Late Nani Bhattacharyaa. The first batch of 50 medical students, though enrolled in 1969, had been shifted to different Medical Colleges of Kolkata because the infrastructure was inadequate to run the MBBS program. The development process was geared up to fulfill the requirements of a medical education. The next batch of students enrolled in 1970 and remained at Burdwan to complete their MBBS from this brand new medical institution of West Bengal. However, it took eight years for the first batch to complete their MBBS degree. The official first batch therefore became doctors only in 1978. Their MBBS degree was granted by the MCI was included as recognized medical qualification. In the later years many of these batches of students became great clinicians or academicians and gradually became stalwarts in their fields. The political unrest in the parts of West Bengal that time was not healthy for the growth and development of the newborn Medical College that time. The students fumed up on protests several times due to the neglects on their studies. Subsequently, due to enormous agitation on the part of the students, West Bengal Government took over the Medical College from the University of Burdwan on 4 August 1976. The College grew up steadily into an academic hub and in 2000, the annual intake of MBBS students were increased to 100. Since 2013, Medical Council of India has permitted the College for intake of 150 MBBS students annually. Presently, other than medical graduates, the Institution is the knowledge hub for nearly 150 post graduates including super-specialties per batch.
