Medical Sciences became part of University of Ghana’s programmes in 1962 when the first batch of students were admitted to pursue courses for a degree in medicine. The government of Ghana with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as President, decided to have a Medical School fully owned by Ghana and with Ghanaian management and teaching faculty. In 1964, Professor C. O. Easmon was appointed first Dean of the then Ghana Medical School. This School was housed in temporary buildings at the Korle Bu Hospital that also became a Teaching Hospital to provide clinical courses for the School.
In 1969, the Ghana Medical School was formally incorporated into the University of Ghana,and was named as University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS). In that same year, the first 39 graduating students of the School were awarded University of Ghana degrees.
In 1974, University of Ghana Medical School initiated the development of a Dental School. The Basic Dental Science courses were offered at the Medical School while clinical programmes were pursued at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, the University of Manchester and the University of London, U.K. In 1992, the clinical courses became fully localized. The University therefore granted Dentistry a faculty status. The first batch of locally trained dental surgeons graduated in 1997.
In 1979, the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) was established with sponsorship from the Japanese Government through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. This Research Institute was sited on the plot of the University of Ghana earmarked for the permanent medical school.
In 1994, UGMS in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, brought into being the School of Public Health for graduate courses leading to the award of MPH, MPhil and PhD degrees. This Schoo lwas first housed in rooms of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research and in the Department of Statistics, University of Ghana Permanent building for the School was started with the construction of the Bill Gates Centre for Malaria Research and Control at the site for the medical complex at the main University. The School of Public Health is now a fully fledged school offering courses from bachelors degree to doctorate.
The Ministry of Health, in 1998, initiated the establishment of a School of Allied Health Sciences(SAHS) now School of Biomedical and Allied Health Sciences(SBAHS), to train graduate allied health professionals . Programmes for this school include Physiotherapy, Medical Laboratory Science and Radiography. The Academic Board and the University Council approved this proposal in 1999. In the year 2001, this School came into being. An earlier Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology also sponsored by the Ministry of Health in 1994 was phased out, with the birth of the School of Biomedical and Allied Health Sciences.
The idea of creating a College of Medicine was mooted in 1994. Planning for the College took five (5) years. In 1997, the Academic Board of the University endorsed proposals from the UGMS to bring together the then University of Ghana Medicine School, University of Ghana School of Dentistry, the School of Public Health, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, the School of Allied Health Sciences, now School of Biomedical and Allied Health Sciences(SBAHS), and the School of Nursing as a College of Medical Sciences.
On December 11, 1999, the University Council gave assent to the establishment of the College but changed the name to COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES.
Schedule D of the University of Ghana Statutes that established the University of Ghana Medical School was therefore amended to bring the College into being.
