Towards an improved pathology service in Ghana

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.