Hospital de Clínicas "José de San Martín"


The Hospital de Clínicas "José de San Martín" is a teaching hospital located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It belongs to the University of Buenos Aires, currently the best ranked university in that country.

History

The original building of the hospital was designed by the engineer Mauricio Schwartz and was concluded by 1879. Nevertheless, in 1880 during the conflict for the Federalization of Buenos Aires, it was used as barracks for marksmen and hospital for the wounded in the battles of Puente Alsina, Corrales and Barracas.

The Province of Buenos Aires, defeated by the National Army, gave control of the hospital to the School of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires and, on August 31, 1880, the National Government ratified that decision.

Built accordingly to the models of its time, the design was inspired by the Friedrichshain Hospital in Berlin and the lazaretto in Karlsruhe.

Ever since 1927, due to the old hospital deterioration and according to needs emerging in the previous years, several projects for building a new hospital were planned but never materialized until 1949, when the current building of the Hospital de Clínicas “José de San Martín” was started in the city block formed by the streets Uriburu, Paraguay, Azcuénaga and Córdoba Avenue. The construction suffered numerous delays and only in 1962 did the first services –Radiology and Otorhinolaryngology out-patient clinic- start functioning in the new hospital. The rest of the services were gradually transferred during the following years.

It was during the first years of the 1970s decade that the new building gained full functionality and in 1975 the demolition of the old hospital was started.

Education

The Hospital de Clínicas “José de San Martín” is the most renowned teaching hospital in Argentina. Every year, it receives hundreds of medical students who will spend there the last three years of their medical education. Only medical students from the University of Buenos Aires are accepted.

The hospital also offers a wide span of residency programs for medicine, biochemistry and pharmacy graduates from UBA and other universities as well as foreign graduates, mostly from other countries in Latin America.

Residencies in the Hospital de Clínicas are among the most esteemed programs in Argentina and South America as many of Argentina’s medical figures spent their medical careers in this institution.

Achievements

This prestigious institution has been the setting for many firsts in Argentina and worldwide.