Junior nurses at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital have been picketing at the hospital premises over unpaid salaries.

The nurses have issued a one-week ultimatum to government to pay them their over eight-months' salary arrears owed them, failing which they will go on strike.

The nurses complain they have been working for more than a year but have only received three months' pay.

Joy News' Michaela Anderson was at the hospital during the protest and reports the nurses are angry.

The angry nurses say they risk their lives taking care of the mentally ill in the hospital.

According to them, they are sometimes attacked by wild patients because of the shortage of medicine to keep them calm.

As if that is not enough, the nurses say the quality of food served the patients is poor and on few occasions the patients have had to vent their anger on them.

One of the nurses narrated how one of the patients pounced on him while serving them with Gari and soup.

Chief Psychiatrist and CEO of the Mental Health Authority, Dr Akwasi Osei said a strike will be catastrophic for the entire nation.

He explained the strike will be a possible national security issue because the patients would have nobody to take care of them and may end up on the streets.

He charged the authorities to respond quickly to the needs of the nurses.