[1][2][3] The hospital was built by Emperor Haile Selassie I in 1969 with the help of the Evangelical Church in Germany.

[citation needed] The hospital has 1200 clinical and non-clinical staff[citation needed] There are over 13 departments which include: A medical school, the Millennium Medical College was opened in 2007 to commemorate the new Millennium era of the Ethiopian Calendar (which is 7 years behind the Gregorian Calendar).

Students admitted from each region of the country are required to pass written and oral (VIVA) entrance exams.

The school was established by the Ethiopian Ministry of Health with Gordon Williams of the department of urology at the Hammersmith Hospital in London as the first dean.

He became the medical director of the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa.