It was only after 1951 when the Rana Regime came into an end and the Late King
Tribhuvan took up as the leader of the country did the doors to modern medicine
open in Nepal. Shanta Bhawan came to the scene only in the 1956 but the history of
goes back to 1940’s when Robert Fleming, an ornithologist, a Christian missionary
working in North India visited Nepal for studying birds. He went back not only with a
rich knowledge of birds of Nepal but also with the idea of huge health care needs of
the country which at the time had little in terms of health facilities. In 1951-52 he
came back for another bird tour, this time the tour became as much a medical tour
as his wife Dr.Bethel Fleming and Dr Carl Fredricks accompanied him. They set up a
clinic in Tansen for six weeks and treated around 2000 peoples. They even
performed some surgeries. Thereafter they sought permission to open clinics in
Tansen and Kathmandu. Clinics were opened in Bhaktapur and a maternity unit was
set up in then Cholera Hospital (now Infectious Disease Hospital). In January of 1956,
the maternity unit moved to Shanta Bhawan starting what was to be the present
Patan Hospital. The care provided by Shanta Bhawan Hospital need no elaboration.

The hospital continued to grow and to accommodate further development, the
Shanta Bhawan hospital amalgamated with the Patan District Hospital formed the
present Patan Hospital, the services with its values moved to the grounds of Patan
on November of 1982.It had then 138 beds with 211 staff, run by a Board under an
agreement between UMN and His Majesty’s Government.

With the withdrawal of UMN from health sector, Patan Hospital Development Board
ran Patan Hospital for a year. Today Patan Hospital is governed by Patan Academy of
Health Sciences PAHS.