A health official taking guests through a tour of the facility
Management of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, in a bid to raise additional financial support for the hospital’s activities, will be organising a fundraising dinner.
The dinner, to be held on July 6, 2018 at the Police Social & Fitness Centre in Accra, is expected to raise about GH¢160,000 to revamp the special ward of the hospital that has seen no renovation in a long time.
This year’s fund raising activity is the second to be organised by the health facility after the maiden event targeted at raising GH¢500,000 for the purchase of laboratory equipment for the mental health facility.
The Acting Head of the Public Relations at Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Amma Boadu, explaining the project to DAILY GUIDE, observed that the special ward is in a bad state; therefore, management has decided to renovate the place to make it become more habitable.
“So this year that is what it got us to do, that at least it because the people there are just like you and I. if you had gone through their dormitories and the washrooms, you would wipe,” she said.
Dr Boadu added that the dormitories and the washrooms of the special ward would be changed with the proceeds of the activity, indicating that excess funds would be channelled to other projects like patients and relatives’ washroom and staff cafeteria.
She said the situation has resulted in staff spending long hours outside the facility in search for food which affects the quality of care given to the patients.
“I am hoping that if we could get the cafeteria in here then staff and even patient relatives as well us patients who do not want to take the food that is given to them, they can buy from there.
We can even generate some money by that and if it is good enough, I’m sure people around will come and get help from us. So that is what we are looking at,” Dr Boadu pointed out.
The Accra Psychiatric Hospital has, for some time, been in the news for insufficient funds to carry out its operations leading to the hospital threatening to shut down on many occasions.
It is, therefore, envisaged that this new initiative by hospital management would get the necessary public support and generosity to meet its targets and provide enhanced mental healthcare delivery.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri