Medicine and hospital services in Wauchope and district commenced with the arrival of Dr. William Begg by March 1912. In time a private hospital 'Wildfels' was developed, and by 1935, Dr Begg decided to develop a new cottage hospital. Throughout the 1940s, negotiations continued. A Hospital Board was formed to raise funds for construction of a Public Hospital at Wauchope. On 21 June 1944, Governor John de Vere Wakehurst and C.A. Kelly, Minister for Health gazetted the name 'The Wauchope District Memorial Hospital'. It took several years of negotiations and fundraising before the State Government reported in April 1954 funds would be made available in 1955 to commence construction of the Memorial Hospital.