It was previously named as Oulu University Central Hospital (Finnish: Oulun yliopistollinen keskussairaala, OYKS).

The president of Finland at the time, Urho Kekkonen laid the cornerstone in December 1968 and the facility was inaugurated on September 3, 1976.

[1] In 2018 the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health granted a permission for the project to build an entire new hospital on the place of the old one due to it no longer meeting the standards of modern healthcare and its bad condition.

The first section is estimated to be ready in 2023 and the massive project is to be fully completed in 2030 with a total cost of up to a billion euroes.

[5] The new hospital will utilise the latest advanced technology, information systems and renewable energy and its goal is to improve the healthcare services as well as the workplace of its 6,800 employees.