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The British won the
decisive battle against the marathas in Central India at Mahidpur in
1818. To ensure smooth and efficient control over this large area
they established administrative divisions in the form of Residencies
and Agencies. In those areas they kept their troops which consisted
of Europeans and Natives and to maintain their health the residency
surgeons accompanied them.
At Indore in 1837 Dr.
J. Bruce took over the charge of residency surgeon from Dr.
J.M. Blander on 27th July 1840. Dr. Burce sent a proposal
for establishing a medical school at Indore which was turned down.
In 1842 he sent another proposal to set up a dispensary at Indore
which also was not accepted by the authorities. On 13th May 1848 Dr.
E. Impey was appointed the residency surgeon Indore and he
took over the medical duties on 5th July 1848.
Sir R. Hamilton
was the Resident at Indore at that time
and he recommended the construction of a hospital at Indore. The
expense incurred in building this hospital was Rs. 8500/- and the
funds for construction and maintenance Dr. T. Bearnount
were chiefly provided by H.H. Tukoji Rao Holkar-II
by levying an additional tax on opium. This hospital started
functioning on Ist september 1849 with Dr. E. Impey as the
superintendent, 25 of the beds were reserved for the public and
called "charity wards". This premier institution was
therefore nornenclatured as the "Indore charitable
hospital" It seems some kind of medical training was being
imparted in the Indore charitable hospital even as far back as that,
even though there is no record of any official sanction for
establishing a medical school. In the words of Dr. E. Impey
"There has also been erected a range of out-house
for the medical students and subordinates for smooth functioning as
they would not have to take leave for going to their families
elsewhere".
This institution
rapidly became popular and Dr. Impey had a building
constructed exclusively for female patients. As the work in the
hospital increased Dr. Irnpey engaged the services, of several
doctors from Bombay to carry out the work. He then appointed Dr.
Waman Gopal Kane in the charitable hospital.
In those times, there
was considerable suspicion in the minds of the people that all
liquid European medicines contained alcohol and the solid medicines
contained bone dust and people were averse to taking these materials
on religious grounds. It was Dr. W.G. Kane's
unrelentless exertion and considerable power of instilling
confidence which went a long way in developing faith in this system
of medicine. To achieve this, he went about the streets of the city
from door to door hunting out patients where Dr. Ganpat
Singh ever he could find them. When Dr. W.G.
Kane retired in 1871 Dr. Beaumount
sent Dr. Ganpat Singh to Grant Medical
College in Bornbay to attend a two year course in 1874. In April
1884, Raoji Laxman took over the teaching of anatomy so that Dr.
Ganpat Singh could teach midwifery and medical
Jurisprudence.
Dr. T.
Beamount(1864-1881) Ophthalmic Surgeon par excellence.
|
Year
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Annual OPD attendence
|
Major Surgery
|
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1864
|
2500
|
18
|
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1850
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15,000
|
276
|
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