Robert Douglas Aitken

Robert Douglas Aitken (28 April 1900 – 19 April 1974) was a South African medical missionary, botanist, and founder of The Donald Fraser Hospital. Aitken proposed a system of curative and preventive medicine and trained black nurses for his hospital in Sibasa.

Early life and education Robert Douglas Aitken was born in 1900 on the Island of Saint Helena. In 1905, his parents moved their family to Durban, Natal. He attended Durban's Boys High School and upon graduation he attended the University of Cape Town, where he earned his B.Sc degree. From there he went on to earn his M.Sc degree at Natal College in Pietermaritzburg and then studied at the University of South Africa, where studying botany and performing botanical research.

Aitken chose to pursue a PhD at Edinburgh University, where he wrote his thesis on hematology. During his time there he received several awards for his work; Aitken was chosen as the Vans Dulop Scholar in Materia Medica and Medicine (1926) and both the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Prize and the Wightman Prize in Clinical Medicine (1929). Aitken claimed that he was called by God to perform missionary work.

Mission In 1933, Aitken and his family moved to Sibasa to build the Donald Fraser Hospital. He was “Appointed by the Church of Scotland as Medical Missionary at their station near Sibasa” (Venter).

Journey to Sibasa Aitken's journey to Sibasa was difficult because of the heavy rainfall and flooding in Pretoria. In his book Who is my Neighbor, Aitken says that he and his family "made two attempts to reach Sibasa but on each occasion we had to turn back." (1). When they finally arrived in Sibasa ten days after their second attempt, Aitken and his family were apprehensive about what was about to become their home. Aitken describes that "Everywhere there were signs of neglect and decay. The station had been deserted for over a year and in the tropical climate everything is quickly overgrown." (Aitken 5). Sibasa had a small mission house, a building with a church and a school combined, and a cottage where the previous missionary lived.

Sibasa Sibasa is in the north of South Africa. In 1933, the area was little known to most South Africans.

Curative and preventive services In many of his written works, Aitken proposes ways to improve the existing system in Sibasa, emphasizing the importance of parallel and curative services, and an overall plan on how to improve health care for natives.

For curative services, Aitken advocates for a “central hospital and a network or first-aid posts with a native nurse resident at each”. Aitken uses building better houses and better schools as an example of curative services. He proposes giving low interest loans to natives so they can buy stronger materials for their houses, implementing school gardens and free school meals, and monitoring the cleanliness of the schools. In addition, Aitken suggests that springs and streams should be fenced off from cattle to ensure clean drinking water.

Training of nurses Once Aitken built his hospital, he focused on the training of local female students as nurses in order to adequately staff the hospital. Most importantly, however, by employing people from Sibasa in his hospital, Aitken attempted to increase the trust of locals in Western medicine. Aitken gives a specific anecdote about a young, sick boy who had been brought to him by a stranger. When Aitken returned to bring the boy to the hospital, his mom had taken him away. She did not refuse Western care because of lack of money, but rather out of distrust. Aitken claims that “In cases like these the Native nurse can do much to remove the mother’s fear and gain her confidence”.

Retirement

Aitken retired in 1969, moving to Pretoria with his spouse. Even after retirement, however, Aitken remained involved in the medical missionary community, serving on several associations and health departments. He was an Honorary Life Member of the SA Medical Association in 1969 and was a Senior Medical Officer in the Pretoria City Health Department with “special responsibility for the City Council’s 7,000 black employees” from 1970 to 1972 (Venter).