On 4th January 1958, The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) was inaugurated by Prime Minister Dr Kwame Nkrumah. Charles Easmon was elected as the first president of the GMA.
The first professional organization to be established in joyous post-independence Ghana was the Ghana Medical Association (GMA). On January 4, 1958, the Osagefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah himself launched the association in Accra’s Arden Hall of the Ambassador Hotel. On that day, the two existing medical doctor organizations in the nation—the Ghana Branch of the British Medical Association and the Gold Coast Medical Practitioners Amalgamation—joined forces to become the strong and unified Ghana Medical Association (GMA).
Five years later, on January 4, 1958, the Ghana Medical Association was formed by the merger of the Gold Coast Medical Practitioners Union and the Ghana Branch of the British Medical Association. Inaugurated in Accra at the Arden Hall of the Ambassador Hotel by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, followed by the Prime Minister and Charles Easmon as its first President, the GMA had a founding membership of forty people.
At the launch, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah said, “I want the GMA to be strong so that the government and the profession can talk to each other and to prosper in the years ahead.” Mr. A.K. Gbedemah, the finance minister at the time, Dr. Eustace Akwei, the chief medical officer at the time, Prof. Charles Easmon, who would later be chosen as the association’s first president, Dr. J.A. Schandorf, the GMA’s first vice president, and Prof. F.T. Sai, the secretary, were all present at the launch. Dr. John Brooke David (Treasurer), Dr. R.H.O. Bannerman, Dr. M.A. Barnor, Dr. D.B. George, Dr. Susan de Graft Johnson née Ofori Atta, Dr. Silas Dodu, and Dr. E.M. Brown were also members of the inaugural Executive Council of the GMA.
Since then, the GMA has been significantly influential in the health administration and healthcare delivery in the Republic of Ghana through several initiatives, innovations and interventions