KNMH traces its roots to the Freedom Struggle, when in the year 1931, Smt. Kamala Nehru converted some rooms in Swaraj Bhawan into a Congress Dispensary. Presiding over it all was Kamalaji herself, a woman frail in health but indomitable in spirits, giving her time, labour and above all compassion till her untimely death in 1936.
After her sad demise, Mahatma Gandhi and other national leaders like Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr.B.C.Roy, Shri Uma Shankar Dikshit took it upon themselves to ensure that the work for which Kamala Nehru made herself responsible was carried on even after her death.
The Foundation Stone for KNMH was laid by Gandhiji on November 19, 1939 and later the hospital was inaugurated by him on February 28, 1941, and the hospital started as a fledgling unit with just 40 beds of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, out of which 28 were free.
KNMH has the distinct privilege of having had Mahatma Gandhi raise funds for the envisioned institution. A large piece of land adjacent to Anand Bhawan was donated for this hospital by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and others.
The year 1949 heralded the commencement of cancer treatment at the hospital. This pioneering initiative was broadened in 1959 and subsequently revitalized and modernized through 1983, laying the foundation for the institution’s emergence as the region’s foremost charitable centre for cancer care in the years that followed.
In 1988, the hospital extended its mission of compassionate service to the underprivileged by establishing a rural base centre in a medically deprived part of the district, envisioned as a hub for outreach that brought preventive oncology and cancer detection to village communities and affirmed its enduring commitment to equity and accessible healthcare.
Gandhiji laying the the foundation stone
on November 19, 1939
