Department of Oral Pathology and Medicine
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Item Evolution of Modern Medicine in Ghana: 1880-1960(University of Ghana, 1995-09) Addae, S.An attempt has been made in this work to narrate the evolution of modern medicine in Ghana between 1880 and 1960. The work deals with public health services only, government being the overwhelming provider of medical services. First, the Colonial Office's medical policies which guided the local colonial government in public health matters are described. This is followed by a description of the evolution and growth of public health infrastructure, curative and preventive health services, sanitation and health education. The special means by which public health services reached the rural community are described as are the development and growth of the professional and the supporting medical staff, tropical medical research, the major diseases of the time and how they were handled by the Medical Department. It ends with a description of medical education of the indigenous Africans, the early failed attempt by the colonial government, and the eventual success of the first African government, to establish a medical school in the country. Starting from scratch in the 1880s, the colonial governments built up a public health service, which, by 1930, could boast a quite modern complexion. From the 1920s, Africans increasingly embraced modern medicine and they, from then, became the chief users of the services. Sanitary reforms, though started from very primitive beginnings, had by 1950 become a regular feature of public health. By 1950, the major epidemic and certain hyperendemic diseases had been eliminated or tamed. The growth of the professional medical and subordinate staff was exceedingly slow and was never able to cope with the grow1ng African population and the ever-lengthening queues of African patients. The colonial government bequeathed the first African government, from 1951, a health service which was largely curative-oriented; this was the greatest shortcoming of the colonial public medical serV1ce. By 1960, under the first African government, health facilities had been greatly expanded, particularly in the rural areas; medical personnel had also been greatly augmented. The first African government's greatest failure was its inability to shift its focus from curative medicine to preventive health; it passed on, in turn, to future African governments, the heavy burden of continued concentration on curative service with which governments increasingly found themselves unable to cope.