HOSPITAL HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT (1891 - 2000)

The history of the Hospital begins in 1891 when the Imperial British East Africa Company, which had been granted its charter from Queen Victoria only three years earlier, received a substantial donation to build a Protestant Church and a Hospital.  They chose to name it the English Hospital and the British East Africa Company, a staunchly Protestant organisation, somewhat surprisingly gave the running of it to the Holy Ghost Fathers of the Roman Catholic Church.In 1895 the British East Africa Company appointed an ex-missionary employee of theirs, Dr. W. H. Mcdonald, L.R.C.P., L.R.C.S., as Head of the Hospital and the Government took over the Hospital from the Company. In 1897 three sisters of the Order of St. Joseph de Cluny arrived from France via Zanzibar. They were Mother Auxanne Maugee, a native of Martinique as Superior, Sister Benilda Houston from Donegal, Ireland and Sister James Hearty from Scotland. They were accompanied by Monsignor Alleheyer, Vicar Apostolic of Zanzibar who escorted them to the Governor (Mombasa was the capital of Kenya at that time) and he in turn took them to the Hospital; it was quite a formal introduction!

In 1901 the three Roman Catholic Sisters handed over to lay Sisters who arrived from England on November 1st. Mother Auxanne died in France in 1902, Sisters Benilda and James went to the Seychelles where there are still members of their Order. A plaque in memory of Mother Auxanne was erected in the Holy Ghost Cathedral and, much later, transferred to the Hospital. There was no provision for maternity patients and in 1912 the first steps were taken to meet this need. A site was eventually chosen which overlooked the newly established Mombasa Golf Course. The Nursing Home had three rooms, which were often to be used as an overflow from the main Hospital. In 1921 the name changed to the European Hospital. It had 12 beds and 4 Nurses. Electricity had been installed in 1910 with cable being suspended from palm trees. In 1925 an operating theatre was built and in 1927 the first refrigerator arrived, but it was not until 1935 that there was piped hot water.

In many ways the Hospital was unable to meet the needs of the community it served and one patient, Samuel Cohen, was sufficiently concerned to leave £17,000 in his will for improvements. He died in 1937. He had made his money as a contractor for the Kenya and Uganda Railway but was illiterate and the will was contested by his daughter, by then the wife of a Mombasa architect, on the grounds that the will had not been signed. Fortunately for the Hospital she lost her case. The 1939-1945 War, however, delayed all plans for improvement, but in 1944 the Government decided that it would have to concentrate its financial resources on medical facilities for the African community and that the European and Asian communities would have to fend for themselves. Associations were to be formed to take over responsibility for the non-African Hospitals. In accordance with this policy the European Hospital Fund Authority was established and allowed to levy a cess on all Europeans over 18 years old. Out of this cess a sum of money was paid to each European Hospital Association in the country based on bed occupancy. The Mombasa Hospital Association was formed in 1947 and assumed responsibility for the Hospital.

The Government also decided to make available a pound for pound aid scheme for capital development and it was this scheme which enabled the first major extension of the Hospital to be undertaken. By 1947 Sam Cohen's gift of £17,000 made ten years earlier had grown to £26,000 and an additional £24,000 was secured from the sale of the Nursing Home. A matching £50,000 was granted by the Government. Mrs. Dorothy Hughes, a well known Nairobi architect, was invited to Mombasa on 19th January, 1948 and building of the Hospital began before the end of the year. It was opened on 20th May, 1950 by Sir Charles Mortimer, Commissioner of Lands and the first Matron was Miss Jane Warden O.B.E. She was to be  Matron for 15 years. The next development phase was the construction in 1960 of the Maternity Ward, initially known as the Baby Wing. This was made possible by a substantial gift from Mrs. Katherine Biby of a well known British Shipping family following the death of her husband and son in the same year. In 1962, with Mrs. Bibby's permission, the Hospital was renamed The Katherine Bibby Hospital. By the time Kenyan became independent on 12th December 1963, any racial barriers that remained from the colonial past had been removed but in many quarters there existed the belief that the Katherine Bibby catered mainly for the Europeans. As part of the campaign to correct the misapprehension the name was changed back to The Mombasa Hospital.

Throughout the period 1947-1985 the name of Kenneth Adcock was closely associated with the Hospital. He was a founder member of the Mombasa Hospital Association and its Chairman from 1947-1961 when he moved to Nairobi as Managing Director of his Company. While in Nairobi he kept closely informed of the Hospital's affairs and was its valuable representative at the seat of Government. On retirement in 1968 he returned to Mombasa and in 1974 he resumed his Chairmanship, which at that time included substantial administrative duties, all in an honorary capacity, until retiring through ill health in 1985. He was awarded the O.B.E. in 1978 for his work at the Hospital. His wife Marthe (Barbie) was founder at the library at the Hospital and served from 1947 to 1961 but her long involvement with the Hospital began much earlier, in 1933, when she nursed at the Hospital for a brief period. Mr. and Mrs. Adcock made an outstanding contribution to the Hospital's affairs.  Mr. Adcock was elected Honorary Life Member on 4th. May, 1992. Mr. I. L. Roberts, former Managing Director and Vice-Chairman of Bamburi Cement Limited succeeded Mr. Adcock on 12th. November, 1985.  He was Chairman until 31stOctober, 1995 when he resigned to settle in Vancouver among his two daughters and their families.

Mr. Roberts rendered exemplary services to the Hospital during his ten-year Chairmanship of the Association.  Due to his leadership and love for the Hospital major development of physical facilities took place.  Old equipment were replaced and new ones acquired, staff morale was high and a loss making hospital was changed to a surplus making one, this surplus helped finance major development.  In recognition of the outstanding services rendered to the Hospital, the Hospital Board of Management elected Mr. I. L. Roberts  an Honorary Life Member of the Mombasa Hospital Association on 30th October, 1995.  This is a rare honour conferred by the Association on its members. Mr. G. C. D. Groom, Managing Director of Bamburi Cement Limited, succeeded Mr, Roberts and has been the Chairman of the Association since then.

In 1987 it was decided to plan for major development which it was expected would increase the number of beds and provide better Laboratory, Outpatients, Administrative and Theatre facilities. The first phase of this was to have been a Children's Ward and a 10 roomed Private Wing. As a result of enthusiastic moral and financial support from the well known Mamujee family the project was significantly enlarged with 22 Private Rooms being built instead of 10 and a new Board Room and Lecture Room, with substantial provision for expansion. This project, named the Mamujee Wing, was completed at the end of 1990 and officially opened by the then Minister for Health, Hon. Mwai Kibaki, E.G.H., M.P., on 1st March, 1991. The Board Room and Lecture Room were subsequently converted into Doctors' Consulting Rooms. The Second Phase of the Development Programme comprised Consulting Rooms for nine Consultants, ten additional private rooms, new Laboratory and Outpatient/Casualty. The Consulting Rooms were completed in March, 1993. The ten private rooms were occupied on 15th October, 1984. The new Outpatient/Casualty and Laboratory were completed on 22nd May, 1995 and officially opened by the Minister for Health, Hon. Joshua Angatia, E.G.H., M.P., on 16th June, 1995.

Phase III of the Hospital's Development Programme commenced in November, 1995 and was completed in April, 1999.  It covered the construction of two modern Operation Theatres, a four-bed Intensive Care  and a three-bed High Dependency Units equipped with state of the art equipment with Maintenance Workshop, Laundry, Duty Staff Flats, Board and Conference Rooms, Pharmacy and Drugs Store, Rafiki Centre and a Mortuary. It also covered the renovation of the old Hospital Building (now a Gazetted Monument), major refurbishment of the main and mess kitchens which included installation of new equipment, Doctors' Flats, entrance of the Reception area. The hospital users are being consulted with a view to drawing up a list of projects which will form the fourth development phase. Of course, the launching of a new development project depends on the availability of funds whether from outside or from our sources. The development of the hospital never really stop because the pace of change always increases and the hospital must keep up.

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