In fifty years, what was a fifty bed Indian Military Hospital at Dharavi, has now become a state of the art 1,416 bed modern "Sion Hospital." This has occurred almost entirely due to the golden motto of the institution: "Service through Excellence" - the one family tradition followed by all staff members at the hospital.

The metamorphosis from the army barracks to a modern hospital has been a slow but steadily progressive one. The main strength of the hospital is the sustained excellence of its emergency areas. We are justifiably proud that it was L.T.M.G. Hospital that started the first Trauma Care Center in India two decades ago. An ambulance equipped with a two-way radio provided emergency treatment to the patient at the accident site. The Trauma Ward handles more than three-thousand seriously injured patients each year. The Intensive Cardiac Care Unit has pioneered non-operative methods in treating patients with acute heart attacks. In Mumbai, L.T.M.G.'s Medical Intensive Care Unit was in the forefront in treating such emergencies as the chlorine gas leak in 1985, the plague epidemic in 1994 and the Bhiwandi food poisoning in 1996. The Pediatric and the Neonatal Intensive Care Units have been doing exceptional work in the treatment of newborns and the young children of Mumbai. It will not be an exaggeration to state that L.T.M.G. Hospital is forever in a "state of alert" for disasters. We have reduced the reaction time of disasters to minutes due to the existence of a disaster management plan.

The youngest of the three major metropolitan teaching hospitals of Greater Mumbai, our institute stands today as one of the internationally recognized pivotal centers of modern health care. For the last fifty years, the hospital has provided quality health care to the citizens of Mumbai following a dedicated path of commitment, compassion, and competency.

Though the growth of the institution has paralleled the growth of our country since independence, much more needs to be done. We are looking toward expanding all our critical care areas and bringing them under the single umbrella of Emergency Medical Services. New improvements in the methods of communication will enable us to manage critically-ill patients.