Department of Community Medicine

Introduction

The Department of Community Medicine is well equipped to support both teaching and hands-on public health practice. Demonstration space and an array of teaching tools such as blackboard, overhead and slide projectors, and a multimedia e-class facility are available.

The department maintains a museum with charts, models, specimens, and catalogues to enrich student learning. A departmental library holds 138 books and journals on epidemiology, public health and nutrition. Practical training is emphasised through frequent field visits to places of public health importance and visits for family adoption in the different villages. Internship placements translate classroom teachings into community health work.

The department also participates in the various national health programmes and runs a vaccination centre with real time entry of immunisation data for children on U- WIN portal. Surveillance data is also inputted for IDSP.

Rural Health Training Centre (RHTC)

A fully staffed Rural Health Training Centre located in the village of Mallunangal, 25 km from the college serves a population of 31,825 and is affiliated with the college (government-owned). It meets distance requirements for student postings. Student engagement is substantial: 35–40 students per batch are posted there throughout the year, with 8–10 interns assigned per batch. Separate residential arrangements are available to accommodate male and female interns; Transport is organized to support field activities.

Service delivery at the RHTC includes a daily outpatient department (OPD) that sees about 45–46 patients per day. The centre maintains essential public health infrastructure such as cold chain equipment and survey/MCH/immunization/family planning registers. Regular specialist outreach is integrated into services with weekly visiting rotations by paediatrics, gynaecology, and ophthalmology specialists. Routine activities include health education and advocacy, immunization and vaccination drives, family planning services, and distribution of IFA tablets. The centre also helps implement the health camps organised for families in the adopted villages.

Urban Health Training Centre (UHTC)

The department’s Urban Health Training Centre is located near Gurudwara Shaheed Ganj in Amritsar, about 8 km from the college, and covers an urban population of 51,843 and functions as a key site for urban community medicine training. Daily OPD services average 35–40 patients, and diagnostic camps are organized to extend screening and diagnostic services into the community. The centre maintains comprehensive survey, MCH, immunization, and family planning registers to document service delivery and support student learning.

The UHTC hosts specialist visits as needed to augment primary care and facilitate integrated referral pathways. Through its diagnostic camps, record-keeping systems, and routine services, the urban centre complements the rural training site by exposing students to the demographic, epidemiologic, and service-delivery contrasts between rural and urban populations.