Prior to 1940, Phitsanulok only had a health station named 'Benjamarachanusorn Health Station'. In 1939, the Governor of Phitsanulok, along with local doctors and nobility requested funding from the Public Health Division (now the MOPH, then operated by the Ministry of Interior) for the construction of a hospital in Phitsanulok. Construction was started on 20 November 1940, which is considered to be the founding date of the hospital. However, the hospital was not completed due to the Franco-Thai War with French Indochina. The hospital was temporarily opened on 15 June 1941. Construction was then completed in November and was officially opened on 1 November in the same year, with a capacity of 50 beds, half for each gender. The hospital was initially named 'Phitsanulok Hospital' but was later renamed to 'Buddhachinaraj Phitsanulok Hospital' in reverence of Phra Phuttha Chinarat, a famous buddha figure in Wat Phra Sri Rattana Mahathat.