The Yirgalem General Hospital is a district hospital in Ethiopia, located 320 km from the capital, Addis Ababa. It is the only place in the region where people can seek medical care. The hospital provides emergency care, a maternal and child health ward, intensive care, and surgical services. Twenty-nine doctors and 98 nurses care for patients on site. Yirgalem General Hospital provides health care to approximately 65,000 patients per year.
The in-house laundry has two employees; until a few years ago, all laundry was washed by hand there—a major health hazard for patients and the two employees, who performed their work without proper protective equipment. Under these circumstances, it was impossible to ensure that the laundry was hygienic. The association Doctors for Ethiopia e.V. In 2015, together with STAHL Laundry Machinery, it provided a solution: commercial laundry machines from Sindelfingen.
Three STAHL laundry machines have been in operation at Yirgalem General Hospital since 2015. Two ATOLL 450 washers and one T 246 dryer are in operation. With the new machines, the two laundry staff members can now wash the laundry—some of which is heavily soiled—to hygienically clean standards. „The STAHL machines make the employees“ work considerably easier and significantly raise the hospital’s hygiene standards. This helps save lives,„ says Tigest Sebeczek-Lakew of the organization “Doctors for Ethiopia.”.
Like all STAHL machines, these machines are individually programmable. This ensures hygienic washing for all types of textiles and levels of soiling. In addition, STAHL designs all its machines to be extremely durable and capable of being repaired using universal replacement parts and a little technical know-how. „It was particularly important to me that, wherever possible, we equip the hospital with machines that can be maintained on site,“ explains Tigest Sebeczek-Lakew.
