Newport doctor wins MBE for hernia care in Carpenter Ghana

Robert Hicks, who grew up in Newport and today works as a consultant surgeon at Northampton General Hospital, was granted the accolade in in the King's New Year Honours List.

Asked how it felt being awarded the honour, Mr Hicks said he was shocked.

Getting ready for anaesthesia in Carpenter village makeshift operating theatre (Image: Dr Rob Hicks)

“I really wasn’t expecting to receive any award for the work that I, or my great team of volunteers, have done," he said.

Mr Hicks is a former pupil at Rougemont School - his father Colin owned a motor trading business at the Handpost and in Bassaleg Road, while his late grandfather was a dentist in Newport.

He first travelled to Ghana in 2011, when he and a team travelled to a remote village in he north of the country called Carpenter to carry out hernia surgeries.

“We had three or four surgeons and in nine days, we (collectively) did over 250 hernia repairs,” he said.

In 2018 Mr Hicks and his wife, Dr Jo Inchley, a specialist doctor in the breast unit in Northampton General Hospital, set up the charity Hernia International Carpenter.

The entrance to the new Leyaata hospital in Carpenter, Ghana (Image: Dr Rob Hicks)

And since then the organisation has managed to build an entirely new hospital, funded by Canadian charity GRID.

He said his team did their first hernia surgery in the theatre suite of the newly-built Leyaata Hospital in November 2023.

Mr Hicks said “It has been extremely rewarding to have been part of this journey and to have made the transition from doing as many hernias as possible in two weeks, to a sustainable model of teaching, training and mentoring the staff of a brand-new hospital”.

Meeting Chief David Mensah with Dr Jo Inchley, Ted Hicks and Dr Rob Hicks (Image: Dr Rob Hicks)

Mr Hicks said that with each visit to the “really remote area, you could see the impact of the work”.

“To give you an idea, the rural community they live in has very basic accommodation, their houses are built with mud bricks, thatched roofs, and families usually live in one room or dwelling cook outside on an open fire," he said.

"Clean water is supplied from a manual water pump.

The team from November 2023 - Rob Hicks, Dr Karen Leyden, Nichola Patterson, Ebenezer Boateng - Three shires with the Surgical team Leyaata Hospital (Image: Dr Rob Hicks)

“Year-on-year we would see an improvement in the living conditions of the community and an improvement in the health of the children. 

"Electricity, fresh water, improvements in food and nutrition."

Mr Hicks said he could not have done any of it without his team, saying: “I got the honour because I’m the team leader but actually without the team, nothing happens. The team who are all volunteers, they give up their time and they fundraise to pay for the trip.

“It’s truly exceptional what they do. I hope they feel that part of it [the award] is theirs, and we can celebrate together”.