North Bengal Medical College and Hospital


North Bengal Medical College and Hospital is located in Siliguri,West Bengal, India. It is the largest and also the sole healthcare facility in the North Bengal region of West Bengal serving as a tertiary referral institute and has teaching programs for graduation and postgraduation. It is one of the twelve government medical colleges in West Bengal and the largest in terms of area and patient influx. The hospital has a bed strength of 862 and caters to a large population of 15 million in North Bengal and many more from the surrounding states of north east India and the neighbouring countries of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, with a patient occupancy rate of 137%. With the largest campus in entire West Bengal, it caters to the largest patient flow in entire Bengal mainly comprising patients from North Bengal, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the entire North East India.It has been recognised as a testing and treatment center for COVID-19 in North Bengal with NICED,Indian School of Tropical Medicine and Beliaghata ID & BG Hospital.The task force is expected to be led by Prof Dipanjan Bandyopadhyay,the Vice-President of Indian Association of Clinical Medicine and a faculty of medicine in aforesaid institution.

Location

North Bengal Medical College & Hospital is located in Sushrutanagar, locally known as Noukaghat, to the west of Siliguri, connected to the town by the 3rd Mahananda bridge. Sushrutanagar,, otherwise referred to as ‘medical’ by the local people, is more or less 5 km from proper Siliguri. The nearest Railway Station is New Jalpaiguri about 11 km away and the nearest Airport is Bagdogra Airport about 9 km from the Campus

Principals

It was established in 1968 as the first medical college of North Bengal. Originally envisioned by Dr. B. C. Roy, the planning was executed by Ajit Kumar Panja, the then state health minister. Prof. Ajit Kr. Duttagupta joined as the first official principal of the college which was then known as North Bengal University Medical College. NBUMC was rechristened in August 1978 to North Bengal Medical College & Hospital and the administrative control went from North Bengal University to Govt. of West Bengal.

The first batches

The premedical classes started on 6.11.67 in a makeshift arrangement at Jackson medical school, Jalpaiguri. 2nd to 6th batch of students undertook their premedical course at Raigunj University College. 7th batch onwards, the students started their premedical course at NBMC campus, Sushrutanagar, their own place.
Classes for 1st year MBBS course for 1st batch started on 18.11.68 in NBU campus. MBBS classes started in Sushrutanagar, the present site of NBMC in 1972. The first 5 batches had to migrate to SSKM hospital for their clinical lessons after passing 2nd prof. First 2 batches completed internship and housemanship there. The college got its recognition from the Medical Council of India in 1978.

Introduction of Postgraduation courses

In 2004, the institute achieved the milestone to be reckoned as the Post-graduate institute with introduction of MD/MS courses in five specialised disciplines like Anatomy, Physiology, Community Medicine, Pathology and Anesthesiology, which were recognized by the Medical Council of India in 2007. Since then more postgraduate courses were added in the fields of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, General Medicine, Surgery, Gynae & Obstetrics, Orthopaedics, Paediatrics, Ophthalmology and ENT Diseases. Postgraduate seats in the fields of Radiodiagnosis, Psychiatry, Microbiology, Biochemistry will be added in near future.

Increase of Undergraduate seats

From 2013 onwards Undergraduate seats had been increased by 50, which made the annual undergraduate students intake to 150. but from the year 2017 the newly added 50 seats were slashed by the MCI on grounds of lack of infrastructure but again in the year 2018, intake was increased to 150.

Campus

The college and hospital buildings, spread over a sprawling campus of, are connected by very long corridors which total a length of 2.6 km. The North Bengal Dental College and the Nursing Training College are also located in the same campus.

Affiliation

The college was affiliated to the North Bengal University since its inception. Starting from the 2003 admission batch, it is formally affiliated to the newly formed West Bengal University of Health Sciences.

Administration

The college and hospital are funded and managed by the Government of West Bengal.

Admission

Admission to this government medical college for undergraduate course is through competitive entrance exams.
Entrance to the college is on the basis of ranks achieved by the student in NEET conducted by the NTA, as is the case with nearly all other medical colleges in the country by a Supreme Court order.
For postgraduate courses one has to clear the West Bengal Postgraduate Medical Entrance or All India Postgraduate Medical Entrance Examination. From the year 2013 post graduate students are going to be selected from single All India entrance, National Eligibility and Entrance Test.

Academics

The courses offered are:

Undergraduate Courses

The college hosts numerous Undergraduate & Postgraduate Conferences throughout the year.
Notable Conferences hosted/will be hosted by the institution includes-
The First Numescon was in 2015, and seen participation from all over India as well as neighbouring countries as Bangladesh.
Visit www.numescon.org for more details.
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which would include 166 beds for subspeciality care in neurosurgery,CTVS and so forth.
(Refer https://m.telegraphindia.com/states/west-bengal/nbmch-plan-for-new-units/cid/158624
https://m.telegraphindia.com/states/west-bengal/rs-150cr-to-nbmch-for-super-speciality-status-hospital-to-use-the-funds-to-improve-infrastructure-and-introduce-new-types-of-surgery/cid/218205
https://web.archive.org/web/20190606162728/https://siliguritimes.com/new-super-specialty-hospital-handed-nbmch/amp/

Students

Every year 200 students graduate from the college. Besides, there are postgraduate students in various streams. Most students are from outside Siliguri and stay in the campus hostels. From 2013-14 session it has been decided to increase the number of undergraduate seats by 50.

Hostels

Boys

Girls

The college students have formed their own bands. Umami,Whistling Woods,Intoxication and The Autonomous are the most famous in the campus.
2017, the Golden Jubilee year Plasma, was celebrated with the welcome of eminent band like Fossils.

Notable alumni

Associated with Apollo Cancer Hospital,Chennai
Head of Dept,Hepatology
Director of Research at Indian Institute of Liver and Digestive Sciences
Formerly Head of Department,School of Tropical Medicine
Presently Director of Dr Mallick's Labs
Advanced Laparoscopy and Robotics
Consultant, Gastrointestinal and Bariatric Surgery
Studied Royal College of Surgeons, England.
Studied GEM Hospital, Coimbatore, India