The Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research (IPGMER), Kolkata was formed as the Presidency Hospital which was the first hospital in Calcutta, having started in 1707 for the Europeans.
The service was opened to the non-European patients from 2nd April 1770. This hospital has a glorious record of research in medicine. It was in a tiny room of this hospital that Sir Ronald Ross created history by discovering the 'cycle of malarial parasite' for which he was honoured with the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1902. The laboratory is dedicated to the service of the patients and still in regular use at the hospital premises.
The hospital was named in the Independent India, as Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital. The naming was done to commemorate the name of the great donor Sukhlal Karnani. People started addressing the Hospital as SSKM Hospital. From 16th January 1957, the hospital came to be known as The Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research (IPGMER). Since then the institute is best known as a Medical Learning Centre of Excellence and a Speciality Hospital. Today, the institution is best known for study of undergraduate, post graduate and post doctoral level medical courses, specialist medical degrees and diplomas, para medical courses, nursing courses in UG, PG and Under school level and is known as the Bethlehem of advanced medical research.
The Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research (IPGMER) sprawls over 34 acres with over two thousand beds.For long, IPGME&R remained solely a superspeciality referral hospital and post graduate medical institution. New landmark sections were added over the years, such as Respiratory Care Unit, The Bangur Institute of Neuroscience, the Institute of Psychiatry, Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences. The institute in the present century turned into Multi Superspeciality hospital with induction of Advanced neo natal department, Human Milk Bank, Genomics, Neuro Medicines and School of Digestive and Liver Diseases.
IPGME&R SSKM hospital is the highest referral center in eastern India. It serves not only the state of West Bengal but the entire north east, Jharkhand, Bihar and Bangladesh. It has developed its basic and superspeciality services with special clinics, advanced medical and surgical care of complex diseases.
In 2007, the hospital celebrated its tercentenary and the institute is Golden Jubilee. Today the integrated institute and hospital is expanding with the addition of new clinical sections and research laboratories.
Dept. of Health Research, Govt. of India approved the establishment of a Multidisciplinary Research Unit in I.P.G.M.E&R in 2016 as part of a national scheme to establish such units in State Govt. Medical Colleges with a view to create a dedicated infrastructure for research with special focus on Non-Communicable Diseases.
Amid all this activity, the mission and vision of IPGME&R and SSKM Hospital remains unchanged, namely to: serve as a referral hospital and institute for the whole of Bengal and Eastern India and to impart basic medical training to qualified aspirants with the goal of producing competent, confident and ethical physicians responsive to the needs of the community and the country.
Services for rare diseases
The hospital has continued the services for children suffering from rare diseases. Over the passing years it has upgraded the services with modern diagnostics, and special therapeutic services.
1.  Genetic laboratoty with facilities for basic cytogenetics and molecular genetics and full time consultants on genetics.
2.  Multidisciplinary research laboratory with Immunology Lab, Cell Biology Lab & Tissue Culture Lab, Molecular Biology Lab
3.   Special departmental laboratories with Endocrinology, Neuromedicine and Rheumatology for diagnosis of related diseases.
Special clinics:
1.  Neurodevelopment clinic for high risk infant and children with developmental delay and disabilities with facilities for neuromotor and neurosensory evaluation and therapy.
2.  Pediatric vision clinic
3.  Pediatric neurology clinic
4.  Clinical immunology clinic
5.  Audiovestibular clinic
6.  Sleep laboratory
7.   Pediatric Endocrinology clinic
8.  Rheumatology clinic
Inpatient services:
9.  Well equipped neonatal, Pediatric and neurological ICU and ECMO hub.
10.  Dedicated unit on Pediatric gastroenterology and hepatology, Cardiology
11.  Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization for eastern India with facilities for transplant of heart, liver, kidney, cornea and skin.