Base Hospital in Addis

The Operation Theatre
For their first fifteen years in Ethiopia, the Hamlins worked in a general hospital.  It was not until 1975 that a small specialist hospital was opened.  New buildings and facilities have been added over the years.  There is now a 60 bed ward and a 12 bed ward.

The operating theatre has an unusual layout – all four operating tables are in the same theatre.  Operations are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with the other days being used for sterilisation of the theatre and equipment. Many of the young women who require only routine surgery to repair the fistula have only a three-week stay at the hospital.

Matron, Sister Ejigayehu, and Sister Tenadam, head theatre nurse

However, surgery is only part of the hospital’s work.  Often young women arrive in such a debilitated state that their health must be built up before they are ready to undergo surgery.

Some require physiotherapy to restore the use of limbs.  Literacy and health education classes are provided in order to enable the women to care better for themselves and their families when they return to their villages.

The hospital achieves a success rate of about 94% for its fistula surgery.  For some women stress incontinence remains a problem, but physiotherapy and state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment are improving outcomes.  For those women whose injuries are so severe that no cure is possible, a rehabilitation centre has been established. (See “Joy Village”.)

Serkalem serves meals in the main ward
About 1100 operations are carried out each year at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.  It has become a centre of excellence for fistula surgery.  Doctors come to receive training in this specialist surgery not only from Ethiopia but from other countries in Africa, and Asia, thus fulfilling Reg Hamlin’s vision “to light a candle for Africa.”

The Government of Ethiopia has been supportive of the work and has provided land for the rehabilitation centre of Desta Mender and the midwifery college.  It is understood that it has also provided salaries for some surgeons who have been seconded to the hospital.  However, the vast bulk of both capital and operating costs are met by charitable donations from supportive charities and governments.  The poverty in rural Ethiopia is such that even the bus fares to reach the hospital are beyond the resources of many; charging patients is not an option.

Collectively the new regional fistula hospitals carry out a similar number of operations to the Addis Ababa hospital but it remains the hub of the enterprise.

Literacy class in hospital grounds
The CEO is Mark Bennett, an Australian, and the current head of surgery is an Englishman who has established a medical school in Addis Ababa.  Catherine herself still operates one morning a week.  All other staff – surgical, nursing, paramedical and administrative – are Ethiopians.  It is significant that many of the nurses and nurse aids, and one of the surgeons, are former patients.