Abstract:
Pathology service in Ghana is still in its infancy due to
inadequate personnel (Pathologists) and a poor perception
of the role of the pathologist in health care delivery.
The state of affairs in Ghana may be partly blamed
on an accident of history, the anomaly resulting from
which has been allowed to become the norm. In the
days of the colonial administration of the Gold Coast,
as a result of non-availability of forensic doctors, hospital
pathologists, and in some cases other medical
officers, performed medico-legal autopsies for the Coroner.
The first health care laboratory in the then Gold
Coast was the Accra Laboratory which was established
around 1900. It subsequently, underwent improvements,
including relocation in the 1920s, to the newly
constructed Korle Bu Hospital. Its main function was
to undertake research into tropical diseases, but it also
carried out routine diagnostic laboratory work, including
autopsies, both hospital and medico-legal.