Private Medical Practice: The Gold Coast Colony’s Christiansborg Infant Welfare Clinic

As the British colonized West Africa, Africans worked as medical officers. John Farrell Easmon practiced private medicine that in 1897 affected his work as the chief medical officer. The Secretary of State for the Colonies Joseph Chamberlain investigated the complaints of medical officers and fashioned the policy of the West African Medical Staff in 1902. During the Great Depression, the West African Medical Staff and Staff Pay shaped how African medical officers and European women medical doctors earned salaries as colonial government workers. Percy Selwyn-Clarke the deputy director of health service employed European women medical doctors in preventive health at infant and child welfare clinics. In 1935, health visitor Christian challenged the government for paying European woman medical doctor Nora Vane-Percy £10 to treat destitute African women and children at the Christiansborg infant welfare clinic.

private medical practice, European women medical doctors, health visitors, Africanization, the Gold Coast Colony, Christiansborg, 1920s, 1930s