The development of healthcare services in Ghana saw tremendous changes in the period leading up to and immediately following Ghana’s independence. In 1949, at the time when the Gold Coast was seeking its own governance, there were a mere 84 doctors practicing in the territory, out of whom 17 were Africans. Medical services were mostly confined to government establishments. Such a situation placed tremendous pressure on the few African physicians available then. This is the environment within which many doctors worked and influenced their early medical careers. One of them was Dr. Matthew A. Barnor, who was widely known throughout his professional life as “Anum” Barnor.
Born in Accra on 15 September 1917, Dr. Matthew A. Barnor received his early education at Jamestown Primary Boys’ School, Mfantsipim School, and Achimota School. The name “Anum,” which translates as “five” in the Ga language, reflected his position as the fifth son born to his parents and became the name by which he was known throughout much of his professional career. In 1940, he passed the London University Inter BSc examination before entering the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1942. He later graduated with the degree of MB ChB and pursued further studies at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where he received training in tropical medicine. His medical studies took place during a period when many West African students sought professional education abroad because local medical schools had not yet been established.
Barnor returned to the Gold Coast in October 1949. At the time, the country’s health system depended heavily on government hospitals and district medical officers. Over the next several years, he served in a number of public institutions, including hospitals in Kumasi, Bekwai, Cape Coast, Hohoe, Winneba, Effia Nkwanta, and the Northern Territories. His work took him through different parts of the country. It exposed him to the varied needs of patients in urban and regional communities. According to later accounts, those experiences helped shape his understanding of the limits of available healthcare facilities and the growing need for broader access to medical services.
His service in the Northern Territories took place during a period when colonial administrative structures remained in place. In his memoirs, Barnor described how administrative centers in many northern districts were organized around key government officials, including the district administrator, the district medical officer, and the police authority. He also recalled serving during a period when outbreaks of yaws remained a major public health challenge in the Gold Coast. Following the introduction of penicillin as an effective treatment, medical teams were dispatched to affected communities. Barnor participated in campaigns that involved traveling to remote areas, often on foot, carrying medicines, sterilizing equipment, reusable syringes and needles, gauze, and other supplies with the assistance of head porters. These campaigns formed part of wider efforts to control infectious diseases in rural communities.
After gaining independence in 1957, Ghana entered a period of institutional development under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah as its Prime Minister. The next year saw Barnor’s exit from government service and the creation of his Link Road Clinic in Accra in October 1958. This was one of the few private institutions that emerged during the early days of independence. As documented by the institution, the clinic expanded and became a hospital in 1972. The move reflected a wider trend in which some physicians began supplementing their public-sector work through private practice.
Private healthcare remained limited in Ghana during the period. Government hospitals remained the backbone of the national system, but privately owned facilities gradually offered additional treatment options. Barnor’s decision to establish Link Road Clinic came after nearly a decade of public service. It represented one of the earlier examples of physician-led private healthcare in the country. Contemporary accounts indicate that the institution provided primary and secondary care through a fee-paying system while maintaining family medicine services. Over time, the hospital expanded its departments. It remained active in Accra, illustrating the durability of some early private medical ventures.
Barnor’s career developed alongside broader changes within Ghanaian medicine. He belonged to the generation that worked before the creation of a domestic medical school and witnessed the expansion of healthcare infrastructure after independence. His experience in district hospitals and later in private practice reflected the transition from a system heavily dependent on colonial institutions to one increasingly managed by Ghanaian professionals. By the early 1960s, local efforts to strengthen medical education and professional organizations were gaining momentum, laying the foundation for later growth in the health sector.
His professional activities extended beyond clinical work. Accounts published after his death noted that he participated in the development of organized medicine and maintained close links with colleagues from Edinburgh throughout his life. He remained connected with the medical community that helped establish the University of Ghana Medical School and contributed to discussions concerning healthcare development. These activities placed him among physicians who worked during a formative stage in Ghana’s medical history, when professional associations and training institutions were beginning to take shape.
Following his death, representatives of the Ghana Medical Association informed his family that Barnor was believed to have been the only physician in Ghana to have served professionally in each of the country’s original nine administrative regions. The statement reflected the geographical breadth of his medical service and the extent of his involvement in healthcare delivery across different parts of the country during the colonial and post-independence periods.
Recognition for his long career came in March 2004 when the University of Ghana awarded Dr. Matthew A. Barnor the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa). The award was presented as part of a special congregation that honored several individuals for their contributions to higher education and national development. The citation acknowledged decades of work in medicine and community advancement. By that time, his career had stretched across more than half a century, beginning with medical training during the colonial period and continuing through the years of nation-building that followed independence.
Dr. Matthew A. Barnor died in June 2005. By then, healthcare in Ghana had changed considerably from the system he encountered when he returned in 1949. The number of medical professionals, training institutions, and healthcare facilities had expanded far beyond the conditions that existed during his early years in practice. His career, which combined public service and one of the country’s early private hospitals, remains linked to a period when Ghana’s healthcare system was undergoing some of its most important transitions.
