The Regional Institute of Ophthalmology houses the Department of Ophthalmology

Ophthalmology

Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye. An ophthalmologist is a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems...

 in Medical College Kolkata

Medical College Kolkata

Medical College,Kolkata was established 1835 as Medical College, Bengal in Kolkata, India as the first college of European medicine in Asia...

.

History

Major Maynard became the Prof of Ophthalmology in Medical College Calcutta in 1905 and immediately found that a modern eye hospital was needed to cope with the large number of blind patients. The proposal for a new eye infirmary was approved by the Government in 1916. In 1918 the land for the hospital was acquired but the work was hampered due to World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. The new eye Hospital was formally inaugurated by H. E. Sir Stanley Jackson

Stanley Jackson

Sir Francis Stanley Jackson, GCSI, GCIE, PC, KStJ , known as the Honourable Stanley Jackson during his playing career, was an English cricketer, soldier and Conservative Party politician.-Early life:...

, the then Governor of Bengal

Governor of Bengal

From 1690, a governor represented the British East India Company in Bengal, which had been granted the right to establish a trading post by the local rulers, the nawabs of Murshidabad, who were nominal vassals of the Mughal emperor in Delhi....

in October 1926. The Regional Institute of Ophthalmology was set up herein January 1978.