Mathew Anum Barnor was a distinguished medical practitioner who played a leading role in the development of the health service in Ghana. Born in Accra he was educated at Government Boys School, Mfantsipim School, Achimota College and Edinburgh University Medical School where he obtained his MB, ChB in 1947. He worked for the National Health Service in Britain from 1947 to 1948 when he returned home and joined the Gold Coast Health Service, working in Kumasi, Bekwai, Wa, Lawra, Jirapa, Nandom, Tumu, Bole, Hohoe, Winneba ending at Effia-Nkwanta Hospital in Sekondi Takoradi as Medical Superintendent. He undertook postgraduate training and obtained a certificate in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 1956. He left the government medical services in 1958 and established the Link Road Clinic, which assumed hospital status in 1972.

He became one of the most influential figures in the medical profession in Ghana. He played an important part in the founding of the Ghana Medical Association and served as its second secretary, from 1958 to 1961, and President from 1963 to 1966. He was involved in the establishment of the University of Ghana Medical School in 1962, a member of its Interim Council and lectured on professional responsibility and ethics for 8 years. In 1967 he co-founded the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana and served as secretaryconvenor. He was influential in the establishment of the Medical and Dental Council and served as a council member and treasurer from 1974 to 1979.

Dr Barnor's high position in the Ghana Medical Association and other professional bodies brought him into some tough situations with President Nkrumah, General Kutu Acheampong and Government Ministers of various regimes. He deliberately followed an apolitical course and he must have been greatly trusted by his medical colleagues in these negotiations. His autobiography shows some of the frustrations brought by Ghana's economic decline for those who had such high hopes for the medical services.

He retired from medical practice in 1994. In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians, and the following year he was awarded a DSc by the University of Ghana and became a foundation Fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. In April of this year he was awarded a Lifetime of Achievement award for his meritious service to humanity by the Ghana Medical and Dental Council.

“To Serve the Present Age, My calling to fulfil Oh may it all my powers engage To do my masters will”

Matthew Anum Barnor was born on 15 September 1917. He died on 20 June, 2005 aged 87 years. 

Matthew Arnum Barnor was one of the most influential figures in Ghana's medical profession, and had a leading role in the development of the country's health service after independence. He founded a hospital, was a former president of the Ghana Medical Association, and helped set up the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana.

Born in Accra, in the then Gold Coast, in 1917, he won a British government scholarship to study medicine and left for Edinburgh University on the Belgian ship Copacabana during the second world war. It was one of seven ships travelling in a convoy over the Atlantic and it had several west African students on board. One of the other boats in the convoy was torpedoed, and the Copacabana's captain drafted the students into “submarine watch.”

After qualifying and house jobs at the Western Infirmary, Edinburgh, Dr Barnor worked in Sunderland during the early years of the NHS before moving to London to study for the diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene.

In 1950 he joined the Gold Coast Colonial Medical Service. In those days Africans who successfully completed their medical training were posted to deprived areas of the country. After being employed as medical officers, they were put on probation for three years. All senior servants, including Africans, were on equal salaries if they occupied identical positions. The difference was that the Europeans received an expatriate allowance and worked in the European Hospital. The crown employed the first Ghanaian doctor in 1887. The next Ghanaian doctor was not appointed until 1926. In 1949 the Gold Coast was on the verge of a representative form of government. There were a total of 84 doctors, of whom only 17 were Gold Coast Africans, and the remainder expatriate Europeans.

After independence in 1957 Dr Barnor retired from the government service. He had served in each of the nine district regions in Ghana and he realised the need to be in Accra.

In 1958 he set up the Link Road clinic, Accra, which assumed hospital status in 1972. It was a fine hospital that still functions, offering both primary care services and secondary care services in a fee paying facility.

Dr Barnor was instrumental in founding the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), and was elected honorary first secretary of the GMA in 1958. He was president of the GMA from 1963 to 1966, during which he steered the association through some stormy waters.

He also turned his attention to medical education. In 1962 he was a member of the interim council of the medical school before its conversion to a faculty of the University of Ghana. He lectured on professional responsibility and ethics for the first 10 years of the school's existence.

Dr Barnor co-founded the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana in 1967, working with the International Planned Parenthood Association. He was the first vice president and general adviser until 1985.

His high position in the GMA and other professional bodies brought him into some tough situations with Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, and subsequently with General Kutu Acheampong and government ministers of other Ghanaian regimes. His medical colleagues, however, greatly trusted him as he deliberately steered an apolitical course.

He was the chairman of the management committee of the University of Ghana Legon Hospital, which catered for staff and students of Ghana's first university. He retired voluntarily in 1989 as a result of pressure from other commitments.

Dr Barnor retired from medical practice in 1994. He received many national and international awards, including, in 2003, fellowship of the West African College of Physicians. In April 2005 he was one of 10 doctors honoured with a Lifetime of Achievement Award by the government of Ghana and the Ghana Medical and Dental Council.

He never forgot his roots in Edinburgh and kept in touch with his colleagues, attending all the important reunions. His academic colleagues visited Ghana as lecturers and external examiners of the medical school in the early years.

He leaves a wife, Dorothy; five children; and 14 grandchildren.

Matthew Arnum Barnor, former family physician, president Ghana Medical Association, founding father Planned Parenthood Association Ghana, founder Link Road Hospital, Accra, Ghana (born 1917; q Edinburgh 1947; DTM&H), d 20 June 2005.

- adapted from a tribute in the BMJ