Addis Ababa Hospital

Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital
Registered Hamlin Logo
Geography
Location	Addis Ababa, Hamlin Fistula Centres, Ethiopia
Services
Emergency department	Yes
History
Founded	1974.
Links
Other links	List of hospitals in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital (also known as "Hamlin Fistula Hospital") and its regional Hamlin Fistula Centres provide comprehensive care for women who suffer from incontinence, physical impairment, shame and marginalisation as a result of an obstetric fistula. The hospital was created by the Australian obstetrician and gynaecologists Catherine Hamlin and her husband Reginald Hamlin to care for women with childbirth injuries and has been in operation since 1974. It is in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. It is the only hospital of its kind in the world dedicated exclusively to women with obstetric fistula (a condition common in the developing world where the maternal health provisions are poor), and it treats all patients free of charge. Patients undergo surgical repair by Ethiopian and expatriate surgeons trained at the hospital's main facility in Addis Ababa. Around 93% of these patients are repaired successfully.

In addition to the main hospital in Ethiopia's capital, Dr. Hamlin has opened three new hospitals in the Ethiopian cities of Bahir Dar, Mekele and Yirgalem; She is opening two more in Harrar and Metu. The hospital is a global center of expertise in fistula repair, and it trains surgeons from around the world. Hamlin says that they have "now repaired 30,000 [women] and these are like ambassadors all over the countryside". Patients come to hear of the hospital primarily by word of mouth. In 2008, she opened the fourth clinic and travelled the world to raise awareness of the effect of the condition on women in Ethiopia.

The hospitals aim to cure 4000 women annually, but Hamlin cited the World Health Organisation's estimate that there are 6000-7000 cases a year in Ethiopia alone.

In 2015, an Irish schoolgirl visited the hospital to see what it was like to experience the condition. Back home, she worked with friends to raise awareness for the hospital and together they raised two thousand, one hundred and seventy one euros for the hospital.

In 1958, Catherine and Reginald Hamlin answered an advertisement in The Lancet for an obstetrician and gynaecologist to establish a midwifery school at the Princess Tsehay Hospital in Addis Ababa. They arrived in Addis Ababa in 1959 on a three-year contract with the Ethiopian government but only about 10 midwives had been trained before the government closed the midwifery school. The Hamlins had never seen an obstetric fistula before and, seeing many cases arrive at the school, decided to create a dedicated hospital.