Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Govt. Medical College & Hospital
Mandi at Ner Chowk, Himachal Pradesh
Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College and Hospital (SLBS GMCH) was envisaged as a premier institution in central Himachal Pradesh to cater to the population of the region and provide quality medical education. It was founded by the Employee’s State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in 2009 and subsequently handed over to the Government of Himachal Pradesh in 2016. The Medical College was inaugurated in May 2017 and it welcomed its first batch of one hundred students in the same year. Patient services were commenced in October 2018. The institution has been affiliated to the Atal Medical and Research University (AMRU) in 2021.
The campus is spread over 23 acres in the picturesque bowl shaped Balh valley, which is also often called the bread basket of the state, in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. It is located at Ner Chowk, 120km from Shimla and 180km from Chandigarh, adjacent to National Highway 154.
The institute boasts of excellent infrastructure: college, administrative and hospital blocks; a state-of-the-art 800 seated auditorium, an architecturally delightful library, a well furnished guest house, a well equipped gymnasium, indoor sports court, hostels for girls and boys, residents’ hostels, nurses’ hostels, canteens and residential flats all of which are on campus. There is also a Nursing College which presently also houses the AMRU, and a patients’ relatives accommodation building.
The hospital has a sanctioned bed strength of 500 that includes Intensive, Cardiac, and Pediatric Care Units. There are ten modern, modular Operation Theatres, laboratories, a Blood Centre, a Dialysis Unit, an Advanced Diagnostic Centre, lecture theatres, conference rooms, and automated laundry and sterilization facilities. The building is serviced by Heating, Ventilation and Cooling (HVAC) system and also has centralized medical gases supply and a unique Inter Facility Transport Optimization (IFTO) feature.
During the Covid pandemic, a separate Dedicated Covid Hospital has been functional that has 100 beds including an ICU and operation theatre.
Human resource is the backbone of any institution. Presently, the Medical College has 86 faculty members, including 19 Professors, and 92 residents providing teaching and patient management services in clinical and non-clinical specialties. There are 314 staff nurses working in the hospital, besides technicians and other support staff.
The College currently offers post graduate courses in Microbiology and Pharmacology and DNB courses in Anesthesiology, Medicine, Orthopedics, Pediatrics and Surgery. The total strength of undergraduate students is 560, with an intake of 120 every year since 2019.
SLBS GMCH has come a long way since its inception but the outlook remains for improvement in the future with Superspeciality Departments, and post graduate courses in all specialities in the pipeline. Also, it will be a day of fruition soon when the first batch of doctors graduates from this Institution and goes out in the service of humanity.