Guru Gobind Singh hospital in Raghubir Nagar to become medical college with 150 MBBS seats

Delhi could see a major change in medical education and treatment facilities in the coming years. Preparations are under way to convert the Guru Gobind Singh Government Hospital in Raghubir Nagar, West Delhi, into a medical college. The government aims to have the college ready by December 2028.

According to the proposal, the college will have 150 MBBS seats and 40 postgraduate (PG) seats, a total of 190 seats for medical education. It will be built in line with National Medical Commission guidelines.

The plan is not limited to the college. The hospital's existing facilities will be expanded and a new 850-bed general hospital will also be built. The work will be carried out in three phases. In the first phase, the sanctioned capacity of the existing hospital will be made fully operational. In the second, the new general hospital will start functioning, and in the last phase the medical college will be readied.

Officials have given a presentation on the project to Health Minister Dr Pankaj Kumar Singh. The government says the expansion will promote medical education and give the public better health facilities.

Posts of professor, associate professor and assistant professor have been proposed for the running and teaching of the college. Posts of tutor, demonstrator and senior resident have also been provided. Through these posts, medical students will receive practical training in the hospital alongside their studies.

The college building will come up on the existing hospital's campus of about 13 acres. An important condition has also been set for starting it: the college will begin only when OPD and IPD services are fully functional in both hospitals. In other words, the hospitals' facilities will be put in order first, and only then will the college move ahead. Once it opens, it will offer MBBS and PG courses along with patient treatment.

In the second phase, the new 850-bed general hospital will be built on about eight acres of land opposite the existing hospital. The target is to start it by December 2027. According to officials, about 40 per cent of the construction of this hospital has been completed.

Once the Public Works Department (PWD) hands the new building over to the hospital, treatment facilities will be shifted there. Under the plan, all departments except the special mother and child health services will move to the new 850-bed hospital. The existing 472-bed extension block will then function as a dedicated mother and child hospital, with special attention to the treatment of pregnant women, newborns and children.