Just three years after the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914 that led to the birth of Nigeria as one Nation by Governor Lord Luggard under the British Colonial Administration, the then Government decided to establish a small Clinic mainly for the treatment of Leprosy cases in the former Bauchi province. That was in 1918.
The Clinic functioned in that Capacity as a Leprosarium with expanded services to cater for the general Health needs of the Bauchi Community till 1966 when the facility was upgraded to the status of a General Hospital. The joy of the population in the then Bauchi province knew no bounds as the upgrading was coming just three years into Nigeria’s life as an Independent sovereign nation, free from the clutches of Colonialism.
Those who witnessed the setting up of the facility were amazed at the rate of its rapid progress which was actually tied to momentous periods in the history of the Country.
The new General Hospital Bauchi was further upgraded to a Specialist Hospital in 1978 barely a year before the return of the Country to Democracy in 1979.
From its nascent beginning in 1918 through its expansion in 1966, the Hospital has had four hundred and fifty (450) beds in 1978 when it transformed to a Specialist Hospital. The Hospital had gone through intermediate stages of development in its strides to live up to its new blossomed status. In 1983 the specialist Hospital witnessed a massive expansion to a seven hundred (700) bed capacity.
The Hospital offered full complements of services ranging from Medicine, Surgery Pediatrics, Ophthalmology, Psychiatry, Dentistry, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) etc.
Administratively the Hospital was under the Ministry of Health, but to cut off bureaucratic red tape, the Hospital was given autonomy vide an Edict of September 10th 1995 with an independent board.
From then on the Hospital never looked back in its developmental and progressive forward match to greater heights. The creation of Gombe State in 1996 led to the movement of some of the board members to the new State. But that development did not negatively affect the high standard of services the Hospital rendered to its community of ever expanding clientele.
Between 1999 and 2003 the facility witnessed yet again a massive renovation and expansion to give it a face lift that prepared it ominously to its pinnacle destination. Following the change in the political leadership of Bauchi Sate in 2007, there was born a new thinking regarding the final destination of the Specialist Hospital in its long historical journey to greatness.