Osmania Medical College

The Hyderabad Medical School which came into existence in 1846 A.D. was the fore-runner of Osmania Medical College. The medium of instruction was Urdu, the degree was Hakeem. Last two decades of the nineteenth century was the glorious period of this school. Seventh and the last Nizam of Hyderabad Nawab Mir Osman Ali Khan established Osmania University in 1919 A.D. and in the following year the Hyderabad Medical College. In 1957 A.D. Hyderabad became the Capital of enlarged Andhra Pradesh.

Tremendous zeal and enthusiasm were evident to achieve all-round progress in medical education.Medical Education, Research and health care of the people are vastly improved by the presence of medical college and teaching hospital in any area and in an atmosphere of medical research. This is true of Hyderabad also.

A Medical School at Bolarum

A medical school was started at Bolarum in about 1836 or 1839 by Assistant Surgeon Thomas Key and Simon Young, the staff Surgeon of the Hyderabad Contingent, for the training of natives of Deccan, as medical subordinates for service in the Hyderabad contingent. According to the records of the Nizam's Army, Surgeon Key was in 1840, Medical Store Keeper and Superintendent of the Medical School at Bolarum. This school was closed from 1st May 1846.

This measure was severely criticized in the local press. The resident explained that he abolished the Bolarum school, merely to establish another, with wider aims.Thus, the Resident obtained the sanction of the Nizam to establish a medical school at the Residency, for teaching European Medicine to native youths of Deccan, through the medium of Urdu. Dr. Maclean was appointed Superintendent and teacher of the school with a handsome extra allowance of five hundred rupees per month as his special pay for this work.

This was the first successful vernacular medium medical school, established in India in the early part of the year 1846. The school was shifted later to the new premises in the compound of Residency Hospital and it was enlarged in 1848 to provide for a wider opportunity in clinical instructions.