Tambaram TB Sanatorium
| Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine | |
|---|---|
| Government of Tamil Nadu | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Grand Southern Trunk Road, Tambaram Sanatorium, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Coordinates | 12°56′40″N 80°7′45″E / 12.94444°N 80.12917°ECoordinates: 12°56′40″N 80°7′45″E / 12.94444°N 80.12917°E |
| Organisation | |
| Care system | Public |
| Hospital type | Full-service medical center |
| Affiliated university | Stanley Medical College |
| Services | |
| Beds | 776 (sanatorium), 120 (rehabilitation centre) |
| History | |
| Founded | 1928 |
Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine, Chennai or Tambaram TB Sanatorium is a major state-owned hospital situated in Chennai, India. The hospital is funded and managed by the state government of Tamil Nadu. It was founded in 1928.
The hospital was established by Muthu, a private tuberculosis specialist, in 1928. Upon returning from the United Kingdom, he started the hospital on 9 April 1928 on the mountainside of Pachamalai (Green Hillock) in Tambaram. Spread over an area of 250 acres (100 ha), the hospital was opened with 12 beds, and Muthu aimed to develop the hospital similar to the Mendip Hills Sanatorium in the United Kingdom. However, he had to move to England once again, and he sold the property to the Government of Madras on 24 March 1937. Taken over by the state government, the hospital was made into a sanatorium.
The sanatorium grew over the next decades with the addition of several facilities such as operation theatre, additional wards, radiology block, and laboratory. The growth stagnated for a brief period during the Second World War. Upon Independence in 1947, a rehabilitation colony spread over an area of 17.14 acres (6.94 ha) was opened by the Indian government's then Minister of Health, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, for fully cured TB patients with facilities such as learning printing, tailoring, book binding and rattan chair making.
In 1976, more wards were created and the total bed count increased to 776. With the hospital gaining importance over the years, a new railway station named 'Tambaram Sanatorium railway station' was built to serve the locality and a separate postal division with the postal index code of 600047 was created.
The institute was the participatory sanatorium in 'Madras Study', a study conducted by the Madras Chemotherapy Centre (now known as the TB Research Centre) to assess efficacy of home versus sanatorium treatment for tuberculosis. With the decline in tuberculosis cases in the region in the early 1980s, the TB sanatorium became officially known as the 'Government Hospital of TB and Chest Diseases', and, in 1986, acquired the present name as 'Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine'. With the admission of a couple of TB patients with HIV in 1993, the hospital became a HIV care and training centre.
In 2002, the Tamil Nadu–CDC collaborative project was formalized. On 1 April 2004, National ART Programme was introduced in the sanatorium. In 2005, fellowship programme for doctors on HIV was initiated. In 2007, NACO declared GHTM as a centre of excellence. In 2008, second-line ART Programme was introduced. In 2009, the centre was recognised by the Central TB Division as DOTS PLUS site. In the same year, the centre was also recognized as a post-graduate centre for MD (TB & chest) by the Medical Council of India (Stanley Medical College).
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