The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University was established in 1957. Today the hospital has become a comprehensive teaching hospital for medical treatment, teaching, scientific research, disease prevention, health care for domestic and international patients. The hospital is comprised of one main hospital and three branch hospitals, namely the first branch hospital, the Jinshan Hospital, and the Qinggang sanatorium.
The main hospital has 44 clinical departments and 3938 beds. The First Affiliated Hospital owns 6,931 employees, including 1,580 clinicians and 3,114 nurses. In 2019, visits to the outpatient and emergency department reached more than 3.68 million, 154,200 patients were discharged and more than 63,100 surgeries were performed. 24 teaching hospitals in Chongqing and surrounding provinces accept interns and nurse trainees sent by the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. 77 secondary and tertiary hospitals accept instruction and help from the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University to improve health care services and staff training. 138 primary hospitals join the internet cooperation network run by the hospital. The hospital also established 29 specialized alliances, the National (Chongqing) Emergency Medical Rescue Team and the Chongqing Sino-French Emergency and Disaster Medicine Cooperation Center.
The hospital operates such advanced medical equipment as da Vinci Surgical System, High dose rate 3D post-treatment system, PET-CT etc.The main hospital undertakes the tasks as treating difficult and critical cases, emergency rescue, and international medical services. The apparent technical superiority of minimally invasive techniques, interventional techniques, da Vinci Surgical System, ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation), and organ transplantation have been established. The number of gynecological surgeries under the da Vinci Surgical System ranks fourth in China and the diagnosis and treatment level of ophthalmic uveitis takes the first place in China. By leveraging the advantages of comprehensive medical treatments, Multidisciplinary Diagnosis and Treatment (MDT) was promoted, and Enhanced Recovery After Surgery(ERAS)was accelerated. As a result, the hospital has become one of the first pilot hospitals of multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment for cancer (digestive system) and one of the first pilot hospitals of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery for orthopedics approved by the National Health Commission.
The hospital has 17 National key clinical specialties (obstetrics, clinical laboratory, critical care, nursing, endocrinology, cardiovascular internal medicine, thoracic surgery, neurosurgery, neurology, general surgery, ophthalmology, anesthesiology, respiratory medicine, otolaryngology, oncology, medical imaging, and geriatrics). The hospital also provides a national key specialty of geriatric diseases in traditional Chinese Medicine, 14 National Health Commission-approved training bases, and 6 pilot training bases of a standardized training system for specialized doctors under the National Health Commission. Besides, the hospital has been approved by the National Health Commission as "National Project for Improving the Diagnosis and Treatment of Difficult and complicated Diseases (Tumor Diseases)”,“ Advanced Stroke Prevention and Control Center ", " National Health Commission Stroke Screening and Prevention Base", and "Professional Demonstration Base of China Chest Pain Center". The hospital runs 27 diagnosis and treatment centers, 20 medical quality control centers, and 11 training bases for specialized nurses in Chongqing.
The hospital has formed the “five pre-eminent disciplines group” comprised of neuroscience, oncology, lipid and glucose metabolism, ophthalmology, and immunology. A post-doctoral center for clinical medicine, 32 doctoral programs, and 36 master's programs have been set up and supervised in the hospital, contributing to the cultivation of professionals of different levels. The hospital also owns two national key disciplines (Internal Medicine-Epidemiology, Neurology), a national key discipline of Traditional Chinese Medicine (clinical integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine), a key laboratory of National Health Commission (key laboratory of brain functions disease diagnosis and treatment), 6 Chongqing municipal key laboratories, 2 clinical medical research centers, 2 innovation teams at the Institute of Higher Education in Chongqing, 1 transitional medical center and 1 academician expert workstation. Moreover, the hospital is authorized to carry out clinical trials of medical device products and in vitro diagnostic reagent products that need to be filed or approved. It is the only institution in Chongqing that can carry out Phase I to Phase IV clinical trials of new drug development. As one of the affiliated hospitals and Clinical College of Chongqing Medical University, the hospital undertakes the task of teaching medical theories to more than 6,000 students in 25 majors, and providing clinical practice training for more than 2,000 students and supervise training in 25 teaching hospitals, completing a total of 30,000 teaching hours annually, which is more than half of the clinical teaching tasks in Chongqing Medical University [GW1] . In 2019, the hospital was approved as a National Demonstration Center for Clinical Teaching and Training. Since 2005, 115 medical students from France, Belgium, the United States, Italy, and other countries have been admitted to the hospital for a clinical internship during the summer vacation. The hospital also receives visiting physicians from foreign countries. Since 2017, 7 doctors from Barbados and 2 from Papua New Guinea have been to the hospital for further study.
The hospital is committed to actively carrying out international academic exchanges and cooperation. It regularly holds International Uveitis Symposium, Chongqing International Forum in Gastrointestinal Surgery, and other international academic conferences. The Sino-France medical exchange program has sent 160 doctors, teachers, and administrators to France for further study and clinical training. Meanwhile, 161 French experts and professors have been invited to Chongqing for academic exchanges, and 19 Sino-French medical academic conferences have been successfully held. For example, the Sino-France International Breast Cancer Forum has been held successfully for eight sessions and has become a well-known brand conference in the field of breast cancer in China. In August 2017, the Hospital signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Chest Hospital of the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Both sides will regularly carry out surgical skills demonstration, case discussion, Multidisciplinary Diagnosis and Treatment(MDT)seminar, etc.