Hundreds of inmates at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital could find themselves on the streets of Accra by Friday if government is unable to supply the Hospital with some vital materials. Authorities at the Hospital are threatening to close down the facility because they only have stocks of food items and drugs to last them up to the close of the week. Already, authorities at the Ankaful and Pantang hospitals, both dedicated to psychiatric patients, have stopped admissions due to the unavailability of resources to cater for the inmates there. Deputy Chief Health Service Administrator at the Hospital, Peter Agyeman Gyau, told Joy News the situation is critical. Mr Gyau said the “pathetic” situation at the hospital cannot be tolerated anymore by the nurses who also do not have protective gloves and other protective resources to take care of patients. He explained to Joy News that the situation has gotten to this “dire” stage as result of “years of under-funding by [successive] governments”. “If by the close of work tomorrow help does not come then the obvious thing to do will be to discharge the patients home”. According to him, the lives of health workers at the hospital could be in danger when the patients get extremely hungry. This is because as the psychiatric patients become hungrier, they become violent and pose danger to health workers. Mr Gyau also fears the poor conditions at the hospital could result in an outbreak of diseases in the hospital. Reacting to the report, Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Health, Tony Goodman, told Joy News the Ministry has scheduled a 3:00 pm meeting with the heads of the psychiatric health facilities to address the issues on Thursday. He denied reports that the situation at the hospital is deplorable, cautioning against blowing issues out of proportion by media personnel. According to him the Ministry has not been officially informed about the deplorable situations at the situations. He assured that the Ministry will audit funds given the hospitals and if there is need to increase disbursements, the Ministry will ensure that.