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The Accra Psychiatric Hospital has suspended admission of patients into the facility over a GHc4.1 million debt.

The decision was taken following several failed attempts by management of the facility to get government to meet its budgetary obligation for more than three years.

The hospital is Ghana’s premier facility for persons with psychiatric and mental disorders among other related health complications.

Dr. Akwasi Osei former Chief Psychiatrist at the Psychiatric Hospital told Starr News on Wednesday that the current crisis at the facility is as a result of the failure of government to take mental illness seriously.

“It is part of the general issues of all of us not taking mental illness seriously, we have been taking it for granted…and it is unfortunate. The bottom line is that we have not given it much attention. It is not on our priority list,” Dr. Osei said.

Emmanuel Febiri, a nurse and member of the Public Affairs directorate at the Psychiatric Hospital told Starr News that the facility owes its suppliers in excess of over four million cedis.
“As it stands, we are talking about 4.1 million Ghana cedis that we owe our suppliers that we need to pay.”

Mr. Febiri added that “in the month of July all the things we were using were basically donations from people, from detergents to the food that the patients were eating were all donations.”