The Kielce region, as well as the entire country, was economically retarded. The material and cultural level of social life was very low. 112 to 114 people lived on 1 square kilometre, while the average population density for Poland was 78-80. Especially the countryside was overpopulated. According to the 1921 population census, three times as many children lived in the countryside as in the cities. The  inhabitants of Kielce did not remain indifferent to this situation and quickly started creating organs of self-government, giving up their savings and family mementos and offering help.

One of the greatest problems was health service. After 1918, there were 16 physicians, 5 dentists, 10 feldshers, 18 midwives and 3 pharmacists for about 50 000 inhabitants of Kielce, while in the Kielce administrative unit there were 2 doctors for 200 000 people.There also functioned the St Alexander Hospital, created in 1827 by the Charity Society and transformed into the City Hospital in 1833.

In the 1840s a new hospital building with 40 beds in Dąbrowska street was constructed. The hospital treated both children and adults. In 1908, a Jewish hospital with 20 hospital beds was built next to St Alexander Hospital. Neither the St Alexander nor the Jewish Hospital fulfilled the isolation requirements in infectious diseases which spread rapidly. Doctor Władysław Buszkowski, head of the male department and initiator of the children's hospital construction, wrote in 'Gazeta Kielecka':' St Alexander Hospital, in which children are treated, is a perfect place for inhaling tubercle bacilli. There is no space for isolating patients with open tuberculosis and the stuffy damp rooms do not meet the needs of child hygiene'.

The enlightened part of the society revolted against this state of affairs and asked for instant help. The active, indefatigable Władysław Buszkowski participated in health service improvement actions. He devoted his organizational abilities to the one aim of his life, the construction of the hospital. He initiated the appearance of press advertisements which read:
' whoever cares about the development of Poland will support the hospital'. On 4.01.1917, 'Gazeta Kielecka' published dr Buszkowski's call for action:' I contribute the first 50 crowns for the children's hospital in Kielce'.

His call may have been understood but the society, pauperised during the war, constantly urged to contribute to charity, could do very little. Some said that the difficult situation of the Kielce region did not allow for such an important investment as a hospital for children. Dr Władysław Buszkowski answered:'Do not deprive children of what is essential to their lives. We must protect them from famine, cold, disease. All for them, our future lies in them. Let us create a temporary hospital for children which should be transformed after the war into a hospital fulfilling current needs...a children's hospital for at least 15-20 beds where patients suffering from infectious diseases who must be taken away from home could be placed.'

In 1919, dr Władysław Buszkowski, together with Bolesław Madzowski, Gustaw Bukowiński, father Adam Błaszczyk, Mieczysław Łukasiewicz, the President of Kielce, and Arkadiusz Płoski, created the Children's Hospital's Friends' Society, whose aim was first to raise funds and then to run the hospital.
Young people from Ms Znojkiewicz's grammar school helped in the fund-raising by donating profits from theatre performances. Juliusz and Janina Kotowski, instead of organizing their wedding reception, paid in the money for the hospital at the Credit Society. Maria Krzyżanowska, the daughter of the historiosopher and mathematician Marian Krzyżanowski, author of 'Ancient Poland', gave away almost all her property, some of it for the children's hospital.

Money for the hospital came from many money collections, performances, from individuals, as well as from the local parliaments of Będzin, Stopnica, Końskie, Pińczów, Sandomierz, Opatów.
In the Kielce region, the watchword 'Save the Children' was reflected in reality. This proves the society's great patriotism, its disinterestedness and exceptional stance and commitment in helping children, which were all expressed in the construction of a children's hospital. Because the cost of the construction was estimated at 1,200,000 marks, which was impossible to collect, they started thinking about buying a well-located building of a suitable size.

On 14.12.1919 Mieczysław Łukasiewicz, the President of Kielce, received the following offer from Mr and Mrs Mokulski:' I will sell the property situated in Kielce, in 25, Lipowa Street, including a residential building and  farm buildings with land area of  for the total sum of 160,000 rubles."

The property was being offered on favourable terms in instalments, with collateral. Dr Władysław Buszkowski persuaded the City Council to buy the property. On 23.12.1919 a contract was signed about the sale of the property 'New Field'(Nowy Łan) between Mr Mokulski, his wife Julia nee Saska and the President of Kielce, Mieczysław Łukasiewicz.
The notarized act was made on the 20.01.1920 in Mieczysław Dygasiński's office at the
Mortgage Department of the Local Court in Kielce, in 8, Kolejowa Street.
Although the city Council bought the property destined for the children's hospital, it did not have the necessary funds for renovation, equipment and a prompt opening of the building to public use. The Polish-American Children Help Committee helped to equip the hospital. On 01.11.1920 dr Władysław Buszkowski died, but his activities were continued by dr Wincenty Zasucha, Stanisław Zawadzki, Wacław Komenda. The hospital was opened on 26.12.1921. It was a small clinic with 25 beds. There were three rooms for patients and one operating theatre. Water came from a well, sewage was disposed of into latrine pits and taken away in
barrel cart. There was electirc lighting and a hand laundry. The kitchen was described as normal, rooms were heated by stoves. The funds for the hospital's maintenance came from lease, donations from individuals, from collection boxes, soirees, from the sale of agricultural products. The hospital was self-financing, every zloty counted.

The personnel consisted of a managing medical doctor, two sisters of Szarytki Convent and helping staff.

The hospital's temporary manager was first Nowakowski (1.01.1922-1.01.1922), the medical doctor of the Rej Public Grammar School, and then dr Tworowski, a laryngologist. Surgical help was administered by dr Witold Zakrzewski. Sisters Sieńko and Natalia Nowicka provided nursing assistance. Sister Nowicka was responsible for the hospital's financial matters as well. Their duties also involved looking after children, preparing drugs prescribed by the doctor, keeping the rooms in order, supervising work in the kitchen, the pantry and the laundry. 105-108 children stayed at the hospital every year, the daily number of patients was 12-16, the average duration of their stay was 40-46 day. Mortality amounted to10%.

The hospital's first patient was a 7-year-old boy suffering from scarlet fever, admitted on 01.01.1922, the son of an excise clerk who was staying in Kielce with his mother, Mrs Lempkes. The hospital adapted from the purchased residential building was insufficient. At the Children's Hospital's Friends' Society meeting on 24.06.1924 the decision was taken to build a new infectious diseases building. The project drafted by Czesław Domański, an architect from Warsaw, who had designed a children's hospital in Vienna, was described as excellent by dr Jan Brudziński, the head doctor of Charles and Mary Hospital in Warsaw. The hospital was very modern for those days. Photos showing its interiors were sent to the International Anti-tuberculosis Exhibition in Rome in 1939.  Władysław Szejnach, assistant professor, and dr Szymon Starkiewicz, the initiator of "Górka” in Busko, offered help and advice in medical matters.
The creation of hospital plans, the collection of materials and the construction itself took more than two years. The fact that the hospital came into being so rapidly should be accorded to the generosity and involvement of the Kielce region inhabitants. The hospital was opened on 2.10.1927. It then had 65 hospital beds. On 01.01.1928. Halina Lewkowiczówna, a pediatrist from the Charles and Mary Children's Hospital in Warsaw came to Kielce. She was the only physician at the hospital and its head manager. The personnel were: one doctor, five nuns, eight lay nurses, one clerk and fourteen members of the helping staff.

The hospital benefited from the help of specialist doctors: dr Zakrzewski in surgery, dr Tworowski in laryngology, dr Zurkowski in ophthalmology, dr Piltz, dr Leyda. The fact that the hospital boasted a permanent doctor, easily accessible consultants and good nursing care helped improve the society's confidence in hospital treatment. Both rich and poor children from Kielce and the region were treated at the hospital. Poor children were treated for free on foundation beds. The hospital was a self-financing institution. It could not always count on the help of the City Council's, which suffered from financial problems at the time. The Magistrate's debts to the hospital continued to rise.

In 1929, the hospital was canalised (cesspool). An admission room, a pharmacy, storehouses for food and linen were arranged, as well as a kitchen. In 1930, the whole property was fenced in and a fruit garden was set up. In 1932, the morgue and the porter's lodge were built, and in 1934 the whole building was converted and another floor was added. In 1936, an 800-square- metre plot was purchased opposite the hospital buildings in order to construct auxiliary buildings and a laundry. In 1934-35, when Bolesław Markowski was president of the Society, the hospital's mortgage record was settled. The City Council sold the property "New Field"(Nowy Łan) to the Society without the grounds intended for a cemetery in return for overdue treatment costs.

On 01.04.1934, the Society asked for a new charter, which was accorded in 1935. It read that the hospital belonged to the Children's Hospital's Friends' Society. After 10 years of hard and responsible work dr Halina Lewkowiczówna left for Warsaw. She was replaced  by dr Maria Mikołajczyk, a pediatry assistant at the Stefan Batory Children's Diseases Clinic in Vilnius, educated by professors Jasiński and Bujak, who knew the Kielce hospital from a training course in 1935.

Soon afterwards another physician, dr Klaudia Bujko, came to the hospital. Dr Maria Mikołajczyk worked as manager, pediatrist, surgeon and analytist. In 1939, she organised with dr Szymon Starkiewicz a Pediatrists' Convention in Busko. The participants of the VI. Pediatrists' Convention, who visited the children's hospital in Kielce, wrote:" we had the opportunity to visit an exemplary hospital. The women who are able to run such an institution should be admired".Among the many signatures there are the names of professors: Szenajch, Michałowicz, Bogdanowicz, Lejmbach.

After one year of dr Mikolajczyk's stay in Kielce war started.She not only treated children then but she also looked after displaced children from the Zamość, Pomorze and Poznań regions. She treated Jewish and German children. The treatment of German children allowed for a reasonably correct functioning of the hospital and protected the personnel from being deported for forced labour in Germany. She gave shelter to many people, among them general
Leopold Okulicki, lieutenant Wojciech Borzobochaty and other conspiration officers. There were sanitary training sessions at the hospital. The personnel prepared dressing materials for partisans. The hospital wasn't spared by the war. Bombs damaged the roofs and partly the walls of the Internal Diseases Department, the laundry burned down, the western part of the administration building collapsed. No patients were killed. Julia Borowska, the matron involved in the hospital's functioning ever since its construction, lost one leg. The construction of a children's hospital in the difficult  interwar period was the pride of the inhabitants of Kielce and the Kielce region. The newly-created children's hospital was described in the following way: "On a high hill overlooking Kielce from the south, the white walls of an institution are visible that the inhabitants of Kielce can be proud of and that they should look after".

Cities such as Białystok, Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Kalisz, Radom, Piotrków had no children's hospitals of their own. Neither did provinces such as Pomorskie, Stanisławowskie, Tarnopolskie, Wołyńskie, Poleskie, Białostockie, Nowogrodzkie. The organization of medical care was an achievement on the national scale.

The hospital has been playing its role for children from Kielce and the region in an almost unchanged form. The inhabitants of Kielce owe the creation of a children's hospital to the initiative of enlightened, socially sensitive individuals who managed to mobilise large parts of even the poor, wearied by war society, to the realisation of noble aims.