Medical School-Dream lives on

BEFORE Ghana became an independent nation on March 6, 1957, the country had a university which was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast. The college operated as an affiliate college of the University of London which supervised its academic programmes and awarded degrees. The institution was awarded full university status in 1961.
Currently, the University of Ghana, which is situated at Legon, near Accra, is the largest of the four public universities in Ghana and currently enrols nearly ???????7,000???????? students.
Originally, the curricular emphasis of the university was on liberal arts, social science, basic science, agriculture and medicine; however, there is currently a national educational reform programme to diversify the curriculum and provide more science and technology and postgraduate training.
Historically, the study of Medical Science became part of the University of Ghana educational programmes in 1962 when the first batch of students was admitted to pursue courses for a degree in medicine.
Information provided on the University of Ghana website indicated that the plan then was to have American government funding for buildings for the Medical School. The proposed medical school was also to be staffed by expatriates.
There are reports to indicated that for political and other reasons, this plan was aborted in 1964 and the government of Ghana with Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah as President, rather decided to have a Medical School fully owned by Ghana and with Ghanaian management and teaching staff.
That was why in 1964, Professor C.O. Easmon was appointed first Dean of the Ghana Medical School. The school was housed in temporary buildings at the Korle Bu Hospital, which also became a teaching hospital later, to provide clinical facilities and other resources for clinical courses at the school.
History has it that in 1969, the Ghana Medical School was formally incorporated into the university as the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS). In the same year, the first 39 graduating students of the school were awarded University of Ghana degree.
According to records at the University of Ghana, in 1974, the UGMS initiated the development of a Dental School where Basic Dental Science courses were offered but the dentistry students at the time pursued clinical programmes at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, the University of Manchester, and the University of London, United Kingdom (UK).
In 1992, the clinical courses became fully localised. The University therefore granted dentistry a faculty status. The first batch of locally produced dental surgeons graduated in 1997, in Accra.
To expand the activities of the medical school, in 1979, the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) was established with sponsorship from the Japan government through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. This research institute was sited on the plot of the University of Ghana earmarked for the permanent medical complex.
In 1994, the Medical School, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, brought into being the School of Public Health for graduate courses leading to the award of MPH, MPhil and PhD degrees.
Currently that School of Public Health is located in rooms of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) and in the Department of Statistics. Permanent buildings for the school have started at the site for the medical complex with the construction of the Bill Gates Centre for Malaria Research and Control and a second building to house the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health.
As part of its programmes, the Ministry of Health, in 1998, initiated the establishment of a School of Allied Health Sciences to produce medical and dental technical graduates through the Medical School. Programmes for this school included physiotherapy, medical laboratory science and radiography. The Academic Board and the University Council approved this proposal in 1999, and in the year 2001 this school came into being.
It is known that an earlier Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology, also sponsored by the Ministry of Health, in 1994 was phased out, with the birth of the School of Allied Health Sciences. Construction of their permanent buildings is underway also at the site earmarked for the medical complex.
A former Dean of the Medical School, Professor E. Q. Archampong, mooted the idea of creating a College of Medicine in 1994. Planning for the college was said to have taken five years.
In 1997, there were records to show that the Academic Board of the university endorsed proposal from the UGMS under the deanship of Professor S. K. Owusu to bring together the Medical School, Dental School, School of Public Health, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, School of Allied Health Sciences and School of Nursing as a College of Medical Sciences.
In that regard on December 11, 1999, the University Council gave assent for the establishment of a college but changed the name to the College of Health Sciences. Schedule D of the University of Ghana Statutes that established the UGMS was therefore amended to bring the college into being. Since its inception, two new schools have been added to the college, and these are the School of Nursing which was established in 1962 as a department in the Faculty of Social Studies and also the School of Pharmacy.
Since its inception the mission of the University of Ghana Medical School is to produce highly qualified and competent health professionals and medical scientists to provide promotive, preventive and curative services to meet the health needs of the nation and the global community through world-class excellence in teaching, research and dissemination of knowledge.
To achieve the above, the staff and students are encouraged to draw on their diverse but complementary core competencies in Nursing, Medicine, Dentistry, Public Health, Allied Health Sciences, Pharmacy, Biomedical Research and Consultancy in order to compete effectively in the globalised world.
A message posted on their website indicated “we will strive to create a working environment that fosters dedication, co-operation and reward hard work, initiative and creativity.
“We will always be guided by the needs of our stakeholders including students, patients, private and public organisations, local and international community in the development and provision of our services”.
“We will position ourselves to promote and utilise emerging technologies to enhance the quality of our services”.
“In all our activities, we shall uphold the highest level of professional ethics, openness, fairness and honesty”.
As Ghana celebrates her 53rd Independence Day celebration on March 6, 2010, it is the hope and desire of all Ghanaians that the aims and objectives with which the founders established the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS) will be realised.