The inadequacy of funding for mental health delivery has reached a crescendo, as one of the oldest mental health hospitals situated in the Central region of Ghana, has hinted it might be forced to release patients receiving treatment at the facility soon if urgent attention is not given to the needs of the facility.
Acting Clinical Coordinator of Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital in the Central Region, Dr Emefa Dadzie made this threat when the Church of Latter-Day Saints at Cape Coast donated some items to the hospital.
According to her, government’s failure to release funds for the running of the hospital since January 2017 continues to make it difficult for the authorities to deliver effective mental health care.
She mentioned feeding of the inmates as one of the challenges the hospital is faced with, saying creditors are no longer willing to supply the hospital with foodstuffs due to the huge debts owed them.
“First of all, feeding the patients, taking care of patients, is becoming a very great burden to us. Even recently, we had to scramble together to get money to buy a meal for a day for the patients because we are not getting the funds from government as we need to. They promised us from the beginning of the year till now. Even the little money they promised to give us, we’ve still not received it yet so we are having difficulties,” Dr. Emefa lamented.
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Apart from staff using their personal resources to feed the inmates, Dr Emefa further stated that the situation has gotten to a stage whereby the absence of any quick intervention may force her outfit to do the unimaginable.
“We owe suppliers backlog of years and they are not willing to supply again so it’s becoming very difficult. Looking in the near future, maybe, we will have to maybe let all the patients go home because we can’t afford to feed them. We can’t afford to take care of them. I’m not sure how much exactly is in the budget for us but what I know is that we went there, they promised us an amount of money. Even though it is a very small amount as compared to what we need to pay back all our creditors, even that small amount has still not come,” she emphasised.