The Accra Psychiatric Hospital has increased fees for some services it renders to patients at the facility.
The new fees are expected to take effect from Wednesday October 07, 2015.
New patients will now pay 40 cedis for folders at the hospital. The previous fee charged for folders was 25 cedis. Also, new patients will be charged 30 cedis for consultation, which was previously 10 cedis.
The hospital has also started charging fees for medical reports to courts, embassies, schools, child assessment or other purposes. Previously, the facility did not charge for these services.
A statement from the hospital indicates that the new fees are “to enable it meet the high cost of essential non-medical consumables needed for the provision of uninterrupted care to patients.”
It added that “these fees are only to supplement funding by the central government towards the provision of mental health care, and do represent the full cost of care”.
Management of the hospital urged customers to cooperate with it in its efforts at ensuring the availability of essential materials needed for the smooth operation of the facility.
Joy News’ Fred Smith is at the hospital and reports that patients who are unable to pay the new fees are being turned away.
Meanwhile, a strike by psychiatric nurses in the three major hospitals in the country has entered day three, taking a toll at operations at the facilities.
The nurses are protesting government’s failure to pay their salaries for several months.
However, a statement from the Controller and Accountant General’s Department indicates that 756,000 cedis has been released to pay the nurses.
The payment will be made to about 133 nurses who form part of some nurses to b paid outstanding arrears.
According to the statement, “staff of the Ministry of Health and the Accountant General’s Department are keying in the inputs for payment of the rest of the salary arrears as the system has been opened for this purpose”.
Source: myjoyonline.com
