A Professorial Chair is to be endowed at the University of Ghana Medical School to be named after Professor Jack C. Mustard to acknowledge his significant and unique contribution to the development of the Reconstructive Plastic Surgery in Ghana. This will form part of activities to Mark the 10th anniversary of the International Reconstructive Plastic Surgery (Ghana) Project, a statement from the British High Commission in Accra said on Wednesday.

Professor Mustard is an eminent plastic surgeon in Scotland, now retired, whose personal vision and energy led to the creation of the project. The project has two plastic surgery centers in Accra and Kumasi headed by Dr Fabian Mark and Dr Pius Agbenorku respectively.

Professor Mustard, 87, developed the idea for the International Reconstructive Plastic Surgery (Ghana) project in 1993, after spending three weeks in Ghana as an Adviser to a visiting team of surgeons and physicians. These doctors were performing plastic surgery operations in Accra and Kumasi in 1992 under the auspices of Rotary International.

The statement said over the years, nearly 30 specialist surgeons from Europe, principally the UK, have visited Ghana to support the Project's aims and to use their expertise to support their Ghanaian colleagues in treating Ghanaian patients, and others from West Africa, in need of specialist complex operations.

Support for the project has come from numerous sources including the UK, Japan, and many companies and private individuals, as well as the Government of Ghana.

The statement said to Mark the anniversary, the British High Commissioner Dr. Rod Pullen would hold a reception on November 14 for the surgeons and other Ghanaian and UK experts in the field and benefactors of the project. It said His Excellency Isaac Osei, Ghana's High Commissioner to the UK, would host a similar reception in London for all those who have contributed to the success of the project in Ghana.

Since its inception 10 years ago, the center in Accra has treated almost 30,000 patients of whom 2,500 were theatre cases. The project has over the years helped a number of Ghanaian medical practitioners develop expertise in plastic surgery, built and equipped a facility for their work, and constructed a 33-bed nurses' hostel at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.