Jan 20, 2013 at 12:38pm

Chief Psychiatrist at the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Akwasi Osei has revealed that the three psychiatric hospitals in Accra, Pantang and Ankafu are cash-strapped.

“The reality actually is that we don’t have money to run the three hospitals and that is the plain truth.”

In an interview with Citi News, Dr. Akwasi Osei indicated that the hospitals have now resorted to buying food items for patients on credit and are forced to wait on the benevolence of charity organizations and suppliers.

“If you are not able to convince your suppliers to give the food to you on credit then you are really hot and that is what may have happened to Ankafo.”

Dr. Akwasi Osei pointed out that the mental institution was often forced to refuse the admission of new patients due to their gloomy financial situation.

“These are challenges, so for cash-trapped institute like ours then it becomes a challenge,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the psychiatric hospital in Accra is set to continue with its decongestion exercise scheduled for Monday.

Dr. Akwasi Osei stated that patients will be discharged in batches and the exercise will be coordinated and executed in collaboration with by community psychiatric nurses and social welfare officers.

He further stated that “they (patients) will go with their medication and when they go, they (staff) will give the medications to the relatives and educate them on how to administer, monitor and supervise the intake of the drugs.”

“We have already sent four hundred and fifty patients home so we have a lot of experience in terms of how to handle them and how to go about it” he added.



By:citifmonline.com/Ghana