BENGALURU: Minto Ophthalmic Institute aka Minto Hospital, which had its beginnings in a tiny clinic in Chickpet in Bengaluru, and then shifted to a small lodge in Lalbagh, is celebrating its 125th anniversary.
Dr Sujatha Rathod, hospital director, traced the history of Minto. “On November 9, 1886, the hospital started as a dispensary called ‘Bangalore Eye Hospital’ in a small building in Chickpet. In 1903, the foundation stone for the administrative and in-patient block was laid by Sree Krishnaraja Wadiyar Bahadur and was expanded in 1917 to a 100-bed hospital.
It is now an internationally acclaimed eye hospital,” Dr Sujatha said. Infrastructure was upgraded in 1961 with 200 beds, and PG courses were also started here in 1962. In 1981, the hospital was upgraded as the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology. The hospital, which started with treating nine patients, is now patronised by more than 1 lakh patients every year from Karnataka and neighbouring states.
The hospital has the biggest paediatric ophthalmology unit in Karnataka. During the plague outbreak in 1898 in Bengaluru, it was used as an isolation hospital. Now, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the hospital is actively involved in handling patients to treat Mucormycosis (black fungus) cases.