Is BRIMS(bidar) better than GIMS(gulbarga) ? In all aspects.

The college is located in the heart of Bidar city, within a kilometre from KSRTC bus stand and Railway station.

Bidar is known as the crown of Karnataka because of its situation in its northernmost part. It is well connected by highways & railways to Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

About 700 Km from state capital Bengaluru : 14 hrs by bus.

150 Km from Hyderabad, the nearest Tier 1 city: 4 hrs by bus.

120km from Kalaburgi(Gulbarga): 3hrs by bus.

All types of buses are available from Bangalore: ordinary express, Rajahamsa, sleeper, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz etc. Major bus operators are KSRTC, VRL, Pavit, SRS, Pooja etc. (My personal preference is VRL). Almost all of them run at night.

Similarly many such buses are available from Hubli which takes about 8-10 hours.

Frequent non-stop KSRTC/TSRTC bus service is available from Hyderabad & Gulbarga, any time during the day & even at night with much lesser frequency.

2 trains are available to & from Bengaluru: Yeshvanthpur-Bidar express (14-15 hrs) & Nanded express (17-18hrs).

People of Bidar are simple & friendly just like in any other smaller cities & towns of India.

Almost all people speak either Kannada or Hindi(Urdu?) or mostly both. Many people speak Marathi & Telugu. Kannada spoken here is heavily influenced by Urdu & Marathi which is little different from the one spoken in South Karnataka or even northwest Karnataka. There are good number of Sikhs too who speak Punjabi & Hindi.

Climate in Bidar is very pleasant unlike the stereotypical belief that people in South Karnataka have. Temperature is moderate to cool, less humid, very cold for half a month in winter & very hot during May (but much better than neighbouring Hyderabad/Gulbarga). Rainfall is moderate during the season. Water is soft & sweet, atleast in BRIMS, but there may be some water scarcity during the peak of summer depending on the annual rainfall, but that was never a major issue.

Accommodation:

Accommodation is provided by the college if we opt for it with a hostel fees of Rs.9000 per year(may change). Since the college is relatively new, accommodation is very good.

The college building, hostels, hospital buildings & doctors’ quarters are located very close to each other which is very convenient for students & teachers. The other 3 buildings are little away, but within a walkable distance.

Hostels are managed by Warden, Assistant Warden & supervisor. The supervisors usually stay in the hostel but Wardens visit the hostels occasionally. There are very few rules & restrictions in boys’ hostel like no iron box /heater, no smoking/alcohol etc, but those rules are not strictly enforced. There are few more restrictions for girls like not to go out at night etc which are somewhat well enforced.

For washing clothes & ironing, dhobis are available in the hostel whose service is average, not so punctual but cheap.

No student of BRIMS usually stays outside in private hostels or as Paying guests except for localites whose homes are in Bidar.

Food:

There is seperate mess for boys & girls in their respective hostels.

Mess bill was around 1800rs/month as of March 2016, collected by the warden through a mess supervisor. The mess is managed by students/supervisor.

The food is vegetarian (rarely eggs/egg rice).

Academics:

Lectures are held regularly with some rare exceptions. Most of the teachers are good, some average, many of them teach with interest & dedication, some of them not-so-interested; but overall the teaching is above average when compared to many other government institutions. I cannot comment on individual departments/teachers because many of them change/retire with time. There seems to be shortage of teaching staff in some departments, but that is not a big problem in a professional course like MBBS where interest & hardwork of the student matters the most. Almost all the teachers were friendly towards students & were approachable any time.

There are 4 lecture halls which have poor acoustic designs, but most teachers used microphone which made them audible.

100 students are admitted every year for MBBS; 85 of them come by state quota out of which 75% seats are reserved for Hyderabad-ruled-Karnataka(HK)region (since 2015). Remaining 15 students come by all India quota who come from any state of India, but most of them are from Kerala, Rajasthan, UP etc.

There are 2 post-graduation seats in the departments of Anatomy, Pharmacology & Forensic Medicine. There are no clinical PG courses as of 2016.

College has all the required labs & museums in all the departments (like histology, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology, FMT, PSM, Microbiology etc) as per the latest MCI norms.

The (old) hospital looks like any other government district hospital, crowded, not so clean. Bidar is known to be a economically backward district of Karnataka & most of the people choose to go to government hospitals.

There is no dearth of patients for an MBBS candidate to learn or even treat in all the major departments. We had regular clinical case discussions, almost everyday in most of the departments. And being a government medical college, only the student’s motivation is the limit for learning. An intern or even a student sometimes, is allowed to do every procedure performed in the hospital. Students here not only learn medicine but also communication skills and crowd management.

Even though BRIMS is a good medical college, it isn't the best & obviously there are many drawbacks. Apart from the rusted pan-stained windows & stinking/crowded wards of the hospital, these are what I felt have scope for improvement:

There are no super-speciality departments. Many complicated cases are referred to hospitals in Hyderabad. Both students & patients are at loss.

Limited availability of equipments, technology,ICU beds & drugs (These are actually the problems faced by patients & administration & indirectly by interns & students).

Very few inpatients in minor departments.

Most senior doctors do only on-call duty at night because there are NO rooms/facilities for them to stay in the hospital. This may be a disadvantage(or advantage ) for an intern. Interns too don’t have facilities to stay (even though there are few beds), but they do not have any other option.

Hopefully the new hospital can solve most of these problems.

Internship:

Internship is very hectic as in any other government hospitals, especially in major departments. Interns are free to perform every procedure done in the hospitals or treat every patients on their own in most of the departments.

PSM posting is a relief, where we were posted outside Bidar city in CHC Nittur/PHC Anadur & UHTC old Bidar for 2 months.

Cultural activities:

All national days are observed with a formal function.

So defenitely it is better