Paul’s Hospital was established with the intent to help poor people who could not a ord medical expenses. The hospitals' first
location was where AtobisTera (regional bus terminal) is today. The hospital was first administered by the Ministry of Health, but the management of the hospital was later transferred to the Haile Selassie I Foundation. The foundation assigned high profile people for St. Paul Hospital Board of Directors. In 1969, the new hospital buildings were constructed in the Gulele area, in Addis Ababa, its present site. The hospital had the capacity to admit 400 inpatients and 300 outpatients. During that time, the hospitals staff consisted of nine medical doctors and 18 nurses. A nursing college building was constructed at the back of the main hospital building. According to the Ministry of Planning, in 1969/70, St. Paul’s was one of the seven institutions in the country giving training in nursing. There was a building on the hospital’s premises designed to accommodate staff members. The German Evangelical Church financed 75 percent of the cost of the building’s construction while the rest of the cost was covered by welfare organizations within the country, such as the National Lottery Administration, which gave nearly one million birr. According to documents from the Haile Selassie I Foundation, the Emperor himself had given 33,000 sqm plot of land in addition to over 6,000,000 birr. Moreover, he gave a lot of money that he received as a gift on his 75th birthday. After serving the nation only as a hospital for 60 years, St. Paul’s opened a medical college during the Ethiopian Millennium celebration in 2007. So, the Ministry of Health named it “St.Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC). It was established through the decree of the Council of Ministers in 2010, although the medical school opened in 2007. The college curriculum is very different from the traditional medical schools. It is the country’s first undergraduate integrated modular curriculum medical education. Within a decade, the college stretched to postgraduate and sub specialty programs. The college has more than 2,500 clinical, academic and admin staff. While the inpatient capacity is 700 beds, more than 2,000 outpatient and emergency clients are visiting our health facility daily. Paul’s vision it to become a medical university with a prestigious academic and research center, and one of the most sought after medical care providers in the country in the future.
