The origins of EHA can be found in the late 1960s when a group of Indian and international leaders and health care workers met together to look for appropriate ways to bring about long-term sustainability of some 13 former mission hospitals, founded from UK, USA and Australia.

The twenty years between 1950 and 1970 were the “dark ages” of medical missions in India. In the 1950’s hundreds of European missionaries began to leave India. This sudden and large-scale exodus left many medical missions and churches in a crisis of leadership and funding. Mission hospitals with one or two hospitals were finding it hard to recruit fresh personnel. Even when they did, restrictions on grant of visas to foreign missionaries posed serious problems. Mission institutions began to close. This had a huge impact on the health care of Indians, since in 1950 one in every three hospital beds in India was to be found in a mission hospital. However this situation was fast changing and some 700 mission hospitals were closed. At the same time government and private hospitals began to emerge.

It was in such a milieu that the idea of a federation of mission hospitals came into being. It was in the year 1970 that EHA was officially formed. The EHA constitution was approved and EHA was registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 on the 18th May 1970.

Over the years EHA has grown to be a medical missionary movement and a fellowship of Christian health professionals committed to bring about wholeness of life to the marginalized members of our varied communities.

EHA's founding 13 hospitals have now grown to comprise a network of 20 hospitals and 42 projects covering 12 states of North, Northeast and central India.