Psychiatric hospitals deviating from Mental Health Act – Muntaka

Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, a former Chairman of Parliament’s Committee on Health has said that mental health delivery in the country has deviated from the core essence of the implementation of the Mental Health Act.

An added challenge, he says, is how mental health hospitals charge higher fees for their services, insisting that was wrong.

The Accra Psychiatric Hospital on Wednesday started charging new fees for some services it renders to patients at the facility.

New patients are now paying 40 cedis to get their folders registered at the hospital, 15 cedis more than they previously paid while some 30 cedis is being charged as consultation fee.

“It’s very worrying, the news about this charges in mental health care. This is not what we anticipated when we were promulgating this law. Our anticipation was a tremendous improvement in the mental health delivery. Even when it was virtually free there were a number of mentally deranged people walking on the streets, how much increasing charges?”