[1] It was founded in 1882 as the Johor Bahru General Hospital, and has served as the city's and district's principle public medical centre since its inception.

The first public sector intensive care unit (ICU) in Malaysia was set up at the General Hospital in 1968 under the stewardship of the State Anaesthesiologist (Dato’) Dr T. Sachithanandan.

Its ICU was officially declared open on 3 February 1969 by HRH Sultan Ismail of Johor.

On 25 October 2016, a fire broke out in the ICU of the main building, killing six people and wounding another four.

[4][5] A day after, a second, smaller fire occurred in the operation theatre in the emergency and trauma ward.