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Despite huge public outcry about the presence of mentally challenged persons on the streets of Accra, the situation may soon worsen.

This is because the management of Pantang Psychiatric Hospital is threatening to send inmates home since the hospital is cash-strapped as a result of GH₵1m arrears in government funding. 

“If the government continues to fail to do anything about the debt clearance, then I think we would be forced to lay down our tools, send some patients away and cease to do any further admissions,” Deputy Administrator of the hospital, Mr Alex Kissi has said.

In an exclusive interview with The Finder, he said the debt accrued because government funding to the hospital has been in arrears since 2013.

Consequently, suppliers have stopped doing business with the hospital because of the indebtedness.

He stated that the suppliers have mounted incessant pressure on the management of the hospital to demand their money.

According to him, following the withdrawal of services by suppliers, the hospital has no option but to buy commodities from the open market at higher prices with the inadequate money from its Internally Generated Funds.

Mr Kissi explained that the hospital now spends close to GH₵10,000 every week to take care of the 250 inmates currently under their care.

He further explained that these are monies from the hospital’s internally generated funds and that of what the government gives intermittently after they made the issue at hand known to authorities. 

“It cannot continue like this and we appeal to the government to come to our aid by paying these debts so we can go back to our old system,” he reiterated.

The situation has now worsened situations at the hospital, compelling management to resort to an open market system, which is not the best.

He explained that the procurement system under which the hospital operated previously, compared to the current open market, saved them a lot of money since they were able to purchase items in large quantities.

He stated that management has written to the government, including the Chief Psychiatric, Dr Akwasi Osei, to intervene and help address the situation.