The history of military medical services and evolution of medical training in India dates back to the days of East India Company. On January 1, 1764, Bengal Presidency Medical Service was formed. The Madras and Bombay Presidency Medical Services were constituted in 1767 and 1779 respectively. In March 1896, Medical Services of all the three Presidencies of the East India Company were integrated to form Indian Medical Service (IMS), which was primarily a military service whose officers used to cater to the medical needs of Indian Army. There was no organisation of technically trained ancillary personnel to assist the medical officers in the field medical units. Semi-trained nursing sepoys used to perform nursing duties on the field.

AMC has its own hospitals that are among the best-equipped hospitals in the country. It has nursing services to provide nurses to all military hospitals. All units up to a battalion / ship / squadron level are provided with doctors who accompany the troops to the battlefield. There is a systematic mechanism for the evacuation of casualties from forward areas. The corps has some of the highest qualified super-specialist and specialist medical officers in all branches of medicine. AMC is integrated with the National Health Programme and provides an efficient preventive and curative coverage to its members. The AIDS control programme is being taken up in a big way to meet the challenge of the day. The existing specialised treatment facilities available at limited places are being extended to major military stations in the country with a view to put them in the reach of troops and their families. The facilities in military hospitals are also utilised to provide relief and rehabilitation to the special children of troops in order to bring them into the mainstream.

The corps not only takes care of the serving personnel and their families but also pays equal importance to providing medical care to ex-servicemen. It conducts medical camps in remote areas for ex-servicemen. The corps also provides treatment to the serving personnel and ex-servicemen and their families settled in Nepal through its medical teams.

In addition to serving men-in-uniform, AMC rises to the occasion during the time of disasters and natural calamities. When Gujarat was rocked by an earthquake in 2001, AMC was the first to provide immediate medical relief under the most difficult circumstances in devastated areas of Gujarat, specially areas in and around Bhuj. Without loss of time, the corps deployed seven mobile medical units comprising 70 medical officers including lady medical officers and 1400 paramedicos who worked round-the-clock in relief operations. The service doctors and medical teams attended to approximately 27,880 casualties. Nearly 2191 major operations and 5741 minor operations were performed. Patients requiring further treatment were evacuated to various service hospitals at Pune, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jamnagar and Mumbai. Specialists moved into the affected areas to prevent outbreak of communicable diseases in Army camps and Army-managed civil camps.