Dr Akwasi Osei
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Mental Health Authority, Dr Akwasi Osei, has raised a red flag, indicating that the Accra Psychiatric Hospital may soon be shut down if funds are not immediately allocated to the facility for its operations.
Dr Osei said the limited inflow of income from stakeholders was hindering the facility from rendering services effectively to patients.
The hospital has experienced limited flow of income in the last few years, leading to a couple of closures and discharge of patients by hospital authorities.
It could be recalled that the health facility almost shut down a few months ago due to a four million Ghana cedi debt owed its suppliers of consumables and medicines for patients.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) government only paid GH¢500,000 and provided some supplies to the facility at the time, but this could not mitigate the challenge as the supply was not consistent.
Dr Osei said a meeting with the health minister to find resolutions to the challenge did not yield results as the ministry had given several promises but had not taken any action.
“We have met with the minister on several occasions but they just say they want to help, but we want them to move beyond simply wanting to help to actually help,” Dr Osei requested.
The CEO of the Mental Health Authority also called for the passage of the Legislative Instrument (LI) on the Mental Health Act, 2012 (846).
Per the act, persons with mental illness will have separate wards at health facilities.
Most of these facilities are expected to have the required infrastructure, but that is not the case due to delays in the passage of the LI.
The act also makes provision for the Mental Health Authority (MHA) to ensure that actual financial allocations are made into the Mental Health Fund.