Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute

Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute is a postgraduate medical institute in New Delhi, India, supported by the University of Delhi and overseen financially by India's Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. It is a constituent college of the University of Delhi, maintained under statute XX(2), focusing on teaching and treatment of chest diseases. Its origins trace to the pre-independence Bhore Committee report, leading to a diploma course in chest diseases starting in 1947 under Dr. R. Viswanathan. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel laid the foundation stone on 6 April 1949, and the institute, named after him, was opened by Rajkumari Amrit Kaur on 12 January 1953, with Viswanathan as its first Director. Its hospital wing, Viswanathan Chest Hospital, began operations in 1956 and was inaugurated in 1957. Located on the University of Delhi's north campus, the institute has a library dating to 1955, a hostel called Patel Niwas, and facilities including an animal house and publication unit. It comprises 13 academic departments covering areas such as respiratory medicine, microbiology, and pathology, and has contributed to research including investigations into the H1N1 influenza pandemic.