The development of modern medicine in Ghana involved more than the creation of hospitals and medical schools. It also required professional bodies, systems of regulation, private healthcare institutions, medical education, and records of the profession’s history. These institutions developed over several decades as Ghana moved from the colonial period into independence and beyond. Physicians were involved in many of these changes, sometimes through clinical practice and sometimes through administrative or professional work. Dr Matthew A. Barnor was associated with several of these areas. His career included government medical service, private practice, professional leadership, reproductive health, medical regulation, education, hospital administration, and historical writing.
Barnor returned to the Gold Coast in 1949 after studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh and undertaking further training at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He spent almost a decade in government service before establishing a private practice in Accra. In October 1958, he opened the Link Road Clinic, which later developed into Link Road Hospital. The institution acquired hospital status in late 1983 and subsequently became known as Barnor Memorial Hospital. His move into private practice took place during a period when Ghana’s medical profession was developing alongside the country’s transition from colonial rule to independence.
Barnor was also involved in the formation of the Ghana Medical Association. His account in A Socio-Medical Adventure in Ghana provides a first-hand description of the association’s early history. The Ghana Medical Association was launched at Arden Hall of the Ambassador Hotel in Accra in 1958, with Barnor among the doctors present. Dr F.T. Sai became secretary, while Dr C.O. Easmon was elected president. At the next meeting, held on January 12, 1958, Dr J. Schandorf was elected vice-president, with other doctors joining the council. Barnor later served as the association’s Second Secretary and became its third president in 1963.
The early association faced practical difficulties because it brought together government-employed doctors and private practitioners within a voluntary professional body. Barnor’s account records the effort required to create a functioning organization without substantial financial resources. The Ghana Medical Association was incorporated on January 26, 1961, and received a certificate of incorporation. After the Companies Code of 1963 was introduced, the association adopted new articles at an extraordinary general meeting on March 28, 1963, and was incorporated under the new framework in 1964 as a company limited by guarantee. Barnor later used the association’s records and minutes when documenting its history.
His interest in medical history extended beyond professional association records. In the preface to A Socio-Medical Adventure in Ghana, dated November 20, 2000, Barnor explained that his work drew on material from the Ghana archives, including colonial despatches and the period’s “Blue Books.” He also acknowledged the historical works of Walton Claridge and W.E.F. Ward, along with medical history material from F. Agyeman. His access to Ghana Medical Association records followed an invitation from its president, Dr K. Dzane-Selby, to write about the association for its 25th anniversary in 1982. He also acknowledged assistance from J. Adjei Schandorf’s 1982 pamphlet on the association.
Barnor’s institutional work also extended into reproductive health. He was among the figures involved in establishing the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana in 1967 after the Copenhagen conference sponsored by the International Planned Parenthood Federation in 1966. He organized the Ghanaian group attending the conference and later served as the voluntary local representative for the initiative. The association’s early work involved physicians, nurses, pharmacists, community groups, and other volunteers. Barnor declined the presidency because of the demands of his private practice, but became its first Vice President and remained Medical Adviser for many years. IPPF later described him as the “pivot around which” PPAG was established.
His work in family planning formed part of a wider effort to extend health information into communities. The association’s early activities included cooperation with women’s organizations and the Christian Council in Accra. Volunteer field workers helped carry information directly to women and later extended the work across Ghana’s nine regions. Among those involved was pharmacist Rosina Attoh Korkoi Konuah, who visited private medical practitioners in Accra and encouraged them to support the movement. Barnor’s household also served as an early base for PPAG before it had permanent offices. The association’s motto, “Have children by choice and not by chance,” expressed the purpose of the family planning movement at a time when such a direct public message was considered daring. These activities helped establish a model in which medical professionals worked alongside community volunteers.
Barnor also participated in the development of national medical institutions. He supported efforts connected with the establishment of the University of Ghana Medical School and later became involved with the Medical and Dental Council after its establishment in 1974. He served as the council’s treasurer. His university connections also included service at the University of Ghana, where he became the first chairman of the Legon Hospital Management Committee. He served in that role for about a decade during the vice-chancellorship of Professor Alex Kwapong, helping oversee the management of the university hospital. The position added hospital administration to a career that had already included clinical practice and professional leadership.
Recognition of Barnor’s work came during the later part of his career. He was elected a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians in 2003 and was also a Foundation Fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 2004, the University of Ghana awarded him the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, citing his contribution to medicine, teaching, community development, and the establishment and development of PPAG. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Meritorious Service to Humanity from the Ghana Medical and Dental Council. His work in women’s health was separately recorded in Perdita Houston’s Not by Chance but by Choice. The book’s publication coincided with the 40th anniversary of the family planning movement, and its preface identified Barnor among nine people worldwide recognized for contributions to women’s health through family planning. Houston’s account placed his contribution within the movement’s broader international history.
Barnor died in June 2005, after more than five decades of medical and institutional work in Ghana. His career crossed several parts of the country’s healthcare system, from government service and private practice to professional organization, medical regulation, reproductive health, university administration, and historical research. Reflecting on his wider contribution, Dr Fred Sai described Barnor’s work as part of a generation that helped demonstrate how Ghanaian doctors could use their professional positions to improve services and contribute to the country’s future. Sai’s assessment also emphasized the wider public value of Barnor’s work rather than personal recognition. His writings preserved accounts of the Ghana Medical Association and the development of medicine in the country. Within that history, Barnor is associated with several institutions that helped shape Ghana’s medical profession and healthcare system.
