The Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research at Chandigarh was established in 1962 and is one of the leading medical institutions in India.
It draws patients from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir and beyond, and its outpatient volumes are among the highest of any hospital in the country. People sleep on the pavement outside waiting for appointments.
It is the reason a family in a Malwa village with a serious illness has somewhere to go, and the journey to it, by bus overnight, is a shared experience across the region.
Punjab's other medical colleges are at Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot, with newer ones since. The state's own tertiary capacity is thin relative to demand and PGIMER absorbs the difference.
It is also, along with Punjab Agricultural University and the Rail Coach Factory, one of the very small number of national institutions located in this region.
It was set up as a postgraduate institute, which means training specialists is half its function, and it has produced a large share of north India's senior doctors.
Its outpatient load runs into thousands a day. Families come from four states, sleep outside, and wait weeks for a slot.
It is a central institution in a union territory and its funding does not come from Punjab. That is a common pattern in the region's best institutions.