History
The idea of starting a hospital came to Ida Sophia Scudder in the late 19th century, when Ida visited her medical missionary father, John Scudder, Jr., at his post in Tamil Nadu. One night, Ida was asked to help three women struggling in difficult childbirth. Custom prevented their husbands from accepting the help of a male doctor and, being untrained at that time, Ida could do nothing. The next morning she was shocked to learn that the women had died. She believed that it was a calling and a challenge set before her by God to begin a ministry dedicated to the health needs of the people of India, particularly women and children. Consequently, Ida went back to America, entered medical training and, in 1899, was one of the first women graduates of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University.
Shortly thereafter, she returned to India and opened a one-bed clinic in Vellore in 1900. In 1902, she built a 40-bed hospital. In 1909, she started the School of Nursing and, in 1918, a medical school for women was opened under the name Missionary Medical School for Women. The medical school was upgraded into a university affiliated medical college granting the degree of M.B.B.S. in 1942, under the name Christian Medical College. Men were admitted to this college in 1947, ten in a class of 35.
In addition to the medical and nursing schools that she founded, Dr. Ida frequented outlying villages and started a roadside dispensary in 1916. Over the years, these roadside dispensaries were upgraded into rural health and development programs.
The hospital now caters to 5500 outpatients, 2500 inpatients, 75 surgical procedures, 22 clinics, and about 30 births every day. CHAD, CONCH, and RUHSA workers go to the villages and rural areas to raise awareness of disease prevention, health care and community empowerment.
Each year 60 students, of which at least 25 are women, are admitted for the undergraduate medical course (M.B.B.S. of the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University)..
Read more about this topic: Christian Medical College & Hospital
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