University College of Medical Sciences

Constituent college of University of Delhi

University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS) is a medical college in Delhi, India, affiliated with the University of Delhi. It is associated with Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, which serves as the teaching hospital.

The University College of Medical Sciences was founded in 1971 by efforts of the Health Minister of Delhi. The Health Ministry proposed to provide medical education to every student who qualified. Even with the presence of two medical colleges in Delhi, MAMC and LHMC, many students were denied the opportunity to study medicine. In 1971, classes for the new college started in the makeshift Department of Chemistry on the North Campus of University of Delhi. The students had their clinical postings for practicals at the Safdarjung Hospital for 125 students. Additional 50 students were sent to Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College, at Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. Shortly afterwards, UCMS moved to Safdarjung Hospital in South Delhi. In 1986, UCMS moved to its present location at Dilshad Garden and became associated with Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital. On 5 April 2006, the Human Resources Development Minister of India, Arjun Singh, announced that the government intended to introduce reservations for Other Backward Classes at 27% in central institutions, including IITs, IIMs, NITs, AIIMS, Maharaja Agrasen Medical College, Agroha, UCMS, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research. Students at UCMS, and the other three Delhi medical schools, who were concerned about the reservation system and considered it a political gimmick, started a protest forum called Youth For Equality.

The college offers medical & paramedical courses, and caters to the health care needs for the East Delhi community and surrounding border areas. The institute is a network centre for the National Brain Research Centre and serves as the nodal centre for AIDS and Safdarjung Hospitals. It is one of the three public trauma centres in Delhi, in addition to Susruta Trauma Centre and Jai Prakash Narayana Trauma Centre at AIIMS, and is fully equipped with a burns ward. UCMS was the first Indian medical college to start a Medical Humanities Group, and it organised the first 'Theatre of the Oppressed' workshop for medical students in India in 2011.

UCMS was ranked 10th among medical colleges in India in 2022 by India Today. It provides facilities like a central workshop, animal house, hospital laboratory services unit, hostel, medical illustration and photography, medical education unit, skill lab and canteen. The college also has technological facilities which include audio video, telemedicine, electronic assessment.

The UCMS houses a central library and 17 departmental libraries with a large volume of teaching and learning resources, which support teaching, research and extension programs of the college. There are over 16,000 books and WHO publications, 18,000 volumes of journals, and 400 theses.

There are twenty one departments at the college: Anaesthesiology, Anatomy, Biochemistry, Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Community Medicine, Dentistry, Dermatology, Forensic Medicine, Medicine, Microbiology and Gynaecology, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics, Otorhinolaryngology, Paediatrics, Pathology, Pharmacology, Physiology, Psychiatry, Radiology, Surgery.

Autar Singh Paintal, a renowned cardiopulmonary scientist known for his discoveries of several sensory receptors. He was the first Principal of University College of Medical Sciences and second Director of Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute and sixth Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research Awarded the Padma Vibhushan. Dr Satendra Singh is a champion of disability rights and a recipient of the President's National Award and Henry Viscardi Achievement Awards given to global leaders.