About 70 patients treated by the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital in the Central Region, have been abandoned by their families after their discharge. Five of them, the Times learnt, have been there for more than 40 years. They were among the first patients admitted at the hospital when it was established in 1965. The continued stay of those cured patients, coupled with the declining inflow of funds over the last two years, are negatively impacting on the effective running of the hospital. This came to light when the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health paid a familiarisation visit to the hospital on Monday. The visit was to enable the members of the committee to have first-hand information on the operations of the hospital. Ebow Blankson, Social Welfare Officer attached to the hospital, who confirmed the story, told the Times that families of such patients gave wrong addresses which made it difficult to locate them. Some of the cured patients, he said, had been sent to the hospital's rehabilitation centre to acquire skills to facilitate their re-integration into the society. The Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Kwaw Armah-Arloo, said the hospital sometimes transports those whose relatives had been identified back home to enable them to live normal lives. Briefing the committee members earlier, Dr. Armah-Arloo appealed to Parliament to expedite action on the passage of the Mental Health Bill. He said the delay in the passage of the bill, was hampering efforts to protect the rights of mental patients. He also called for adequate supply of psychotropic drugs to psychiatric hospitals. Dr. Armah-Arloo advised the public to treat mental patients with kindness. He expressed concern about inadequate staffing which affects the ad¬ministration of the hospital. According to him, the hospital also runs general medical duties along its core functions of psychiatry. Majority of the cases, he explained, were drug related which suggest that drug use is on the increase. Source: The Ghanaian Times