The Department of Anaesthesiology took its roots in J.N. Medical College, Belgaum way back in 1966, immediately after the inception of the College with two staff members. Dr. P. M. Bellad was the First Head of the Department. Dr. P.F. Kotur was Head of the Dept from 1996-2006. He is an eminent administrator and academician. He holds the post of Registrar KLE University presently. Dr. V.K. Dhulkhed known academician and a teacher of Anaesthesiology was Prof. & Head of Dept. from 2006 to 2008.

Dr. C.S. Sanikop took the charge as Professor and Head of the Department of Anaesthesiology from 2009 onwards. Diploma in Anaesthesiology (DA) course was started in 1978 and the MD course in 1988.
 
The old K.L.E.S. Hospital was established in 1986 with bed strength 300 and the state of art, New KLE Dr Prabhakar Kore Charitable Hospital in 1996 with a capacity of 1000 beds. KLE Dr Prabhakar Kore Charitable Hospital was commissioned in the year 2004. It has bed strength of 990. Now the department is the part of the KLE University (since 2006).

We provide comprehensive anaesthesia care to the patient, render anaesthesia service in areas outside the operation theatre Pain Service, ICU, ICCU Emergency and Trauma Care, impart training to medical and paramedical and others in BLS & ACLS.

The department excels in the specialized field of anaesthesiology, critical care, medicine and comprehensive pain management to impart value based education to the students to create environment for their social and spiritual development and to conduct continued educational programmes and activities to keep up with the changing trends in the field to strive to be the top Anaesthesiology department in the country and to get global recognition. The teaching faculty of the department conducts seminars, journal clubs, case discussions, mortality and morbidity meetings, lectures regularly. The department also organizes acute and chronic pain management service and runs regular Anaesthesia OPD cum Pain Clinic in KLE Dr Prabhakar Kore Charitable Hospital & KLES Dr Prabhakar Kore Hospital & MRC, Belgaum. The P.G. students are encouraged to attend Conferences, CME programs and to present scientific papers. They are also exposed to all the subspecialties of Anaesthesia like cardiothoracic, neurosurgical, urology, pediatric, plastic & laparoscopic surgery. It will not be an overstatement if we say that postgraduate teaching program of our department is one of the best in India. The Anaesthesia techniques which we follow and teach include latest techniques in general anaesthesia, various regional blocks including spinal and epidural anaesthesia, other field blocks for post operative pain management.

Our department aims to train the undergraduates in the basics of anaesthesia, produce a competent anesthesiologist capable of carrying out anaesthesia procedures in all fields of surgery and managing critically ill patients and carry out pain management, impart knowledge of research methodology and scientific temper for the advancement anaesthesia knowledge.

We enable students to inculcate analytical, practical and communication skills, depute faculty staff for updating their knowledge and research skill and facilitate achieving the institutional goal of producing a physician of first contact having the basic knowledge of anesthesiology and skills to teach and practice CPR.

Our department has a well maintained Anaesthesiology museum and library in addition to central library of the college. Our library is having all modern books and indexed journals in addition to the first and unique digital library of the college. The department has an internet connection having an access to computerized bibliographic data base (Medline) and computerized library.

The department imparts Hands on Training on cardiopulmonary brain resuscitation (CPBR) to all the medical, paramedical and also lay public round the year. We are the pioneers, who are responsible for the institution of "KLE University’s Department of Anaesthesiology, J.N. Medical College Annual Ora¬tion" during the State level conference for the first time in the history of this conference in the year 1997. It has been a regular feature every year and till today Twelve Orations (12) have been awarded to various senior professors in the field. Our Staff members in addition to service and teaching are in¬volved in research work. They have presented papers / posters in various international, national and state conferences and published scientific articles in International, National, State & Regional Journals. We hope to achieve excellence in all aspects and bring up the department to the global standards.