As interesting as the scholastic legacy, the University of Santo Tomas also bears a noteworthy legacy to the practice of medicine in the country ever since the university first offered degrees in medicine in 1875. UST at the time did not have its own hospital for its medical students to be able to train what they’ve learned. It was decreed instead that the then 300+ old hospital of San Juan De Dios (in Intramuros near the old UST campus) be the university’s training institution for medicine.
With the onslaught of World War II in the country, the administration of San Juan De Dios Hospital was given to UST for the meantime throughout the wartime era, the end of which saw the destruction of both San Juan De Dios and the old UST in Intramuros. San Juan De Dios would be rebuilt and relocated down south to Pasay while UST’s medical program would be relocated north to the then growing Sampaloc campus.