A mental health board is to be set up to see to the implementation of the recently passed mental health bill. The board is expected to provide a seed fund to address some of the challenges faced by mental health institutions in the country. This was announced by the Minister of Health, Sherry Ayittey after a facility tour of the Accra Psychiatric hospital to assess security which seems to have deteriorated in recent times. The Accra psychiatric hospital with an in-patient population of over 1,000 currently has 7 doctors, 3 Pharmacists, 5 Medical Assistants and about 250 nurses manning the various wards and units. The nurse to patient ratio which should be 1: 4 is now 1: 40 which increases the risk of workers at the facility. The Health Minister's visit comes after a recent attack of two nurses by a patient. One nurse was injured in the eye, whilst the other got an injured on the arm. Elizabeth Mensah and Elizabeth Martey both Senior staff nurses told joy news the attack would not deter them from executing their humanitarian jobs. In an interview with Joy News, specialist psychiatrist at the hospital, Dr. Pinanman Appau outlined a number of challenges the hospital currently faces especially with infrastructure , the huge shortfall in staff numbers and finances and debts totaling over GHs 3.2 million with some threatening to institute legal action against the hospital. “Most of our problems boils down to funds, we were forced to stop admissions for some times as we actually don't have funds to run the hospital , so we are actually calling for a constitution of a mental health board so we can source for funds on our own to run the hospital”, he said. The sector minister, Sherry Ayittey briefing the media about what government seeks to do and her vision for the sector said, with the constitution of the mental health board, a seed money is to be put in place to get the mental health fund established to take care of the numerous liabilities. She adds that the Pantang hospital would be expanded with recreational facilities provided to allow inmates refresh themselves, an issue that needs to be addressed urgently as part of achieving Ghana’s MDGs. She also promised to get a bus for the hospital to enable them continue with the operation 600, which aims to decongest the hospital. He appealed to the private sector to adopt some of the wards as an interim measure.