For Medical Director of Mekelle Hospital, Dr Kahsay Gebremedhin, staying home was not an option when conflict erupted in Mekelle.  He had a medical team to lead and patients to treat. And he hasn’t stopped coming to work in all the seven months since then even when transportation services were disrupted and he had to walk several kilometers daily – at great personal risk – to get to the hospital from the outskirts of town, where he lived.  However, he rejects any notion that he is a singular hero. Many colleagues did the same. In fact, in the first three months since the conflict, 70% of the hospital’s staff, including specialist doctors, continued to work without salary.

“I considered it my duty to hold the hospital together and lead by example at a time when our services were needed most,” Dr Kahsay says, explaining that as a medical director and an internist, he led and oversaw the healthcare services alongside treating patients.

Due to disruption of services in primary health care facilities or lack of access due to security concerns, patients seeking emergency health care and childbirth services have been seeking care in facilities in Mekelle town, like Mekelle Hospital. Where formerly the hospital was providing around 480 births per month, it was delivering 600-700 deliveries a month since the conflict. In January alone, 760 women delivered in the hospital. 

When electricity was interrupted in Mekelle in November 2020, patients that needed surgical interventions had to find fuel for the generator that kept the operation theatre running for emergency procedures and Caesarian section deliveries. “Once, I walked to a military camp with a jerry can in search of fuel,” Dr Kahsay recalls.

Together with dedicated team members like Gebremedhin Hadush, Director of Nursing at the hospital, Dr Kahsay is determined to ensure that essential health services, including delivery and surgery as well as casualty and emergency treatment, continue at the hospital. “We are able to provide these services using medications and supplies received from the Regional Health Bureau and partners. We hope partners like WHO will continue supporting us until the situation normalizes,” he says.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting the humanitarian response in Tigray through coordination of Health Cluster partners, direct technical support to the regional health bureau and zonal health offices, and the supply of emergency health kits, trauma kits, and other essential medical supplies to help revitalize health care services.