The Military Medical Academy was founded on 2 March 1844. On that day,
Prince Alexander Karađorđević signed a decree establishing the first "Central Military Hospital" on the foundations of the military hospital in Belgrade. In 1909 began the construction of a new building of the "General Military Hospital". with 400 beds available, in
Vračar. It was planned to be the most advanced hospital in the
Balkans. The hospital, changed its name once again into the "Main Military Hospital" in 1930. It operated under the Health Department of the Defence Ministry of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1949, the hospital was renamed to the "Military Medical Academy", the name it bears to this date. In 1960, the Parliament of Yugoslavia passed an "Act on the Military Medical Academy as the top military medical, educational and medical research institution", which further contoured its supreme status in health system of Serbia and then Yugoslavia. In 1982, after five years of construction, the Military Medical Academy moved into new medical complex, one of the largest in Europe and the largest single hospital edifice in Serbia. In 2007, under the agreement between the Ministry of Defence and the
Ministry of Health, the Military Medical Academy was functionally integrated into the national health system thus providing health care to civilians also. In 2011, the Military Medical Academy became integral part of newly established
University of Defence, together with
Military Academy. Annually, with 1,200 beds available, about 35,000 patients are hospitalized, about 20,000 surgical interventions are made and more than half a million specialist examinations are performed. ==Building==