Former Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, Sarah Adwoa Safo, has issued a passionate call to action, urging the government to make the basic needs of public hospitals a matter of urgency and to ensure these facilities are adequately resourced to function as they should.
Her appeal came during a donation exercise by her philanthropic arm, the Adwoa Safo Foundation, at the Pantang Hospital, where she also turned her attention to a piece of legislation she helped champion over a decade ago.
Adwoa Safo called on President John Dramani Mahama to fully implement the provisions of the Mental Health Act, 2012 (Act 846), a law passed by Parliament on March 2, 2012, with a clear and ambitious goal: to make mental healthcare free and accessible, particularly for Ghana’s most vulnerable citizens. As a former Dome-Kwabenya Member of Parliament who was part of the caucus that drove the legislation forward, she spoke with both personal conviction and institutional knowledge.
Her tone, however, carried a note of deep frustration. Despite the promise the law once held, she lamented that it has “outlived its usefulness”, a consequence, she argued, of successive governments failing to adequately fund its implementation. For her, the cost of that failure is measured not in figures, but in the lives of Ghanaians who continue to go without the mental health support they deserve.
“A country that is mentally healthy is also healthy in every aspect of national life,” she stressed, framing mental healthcare not as a peripheral concern, but as a cornerstone of national wellbeing.
The visit to Pantang Hospital was more than a platform for advocacy; it was a demonstration of the Foundation’s long-standing commitment to walking its talk. Established in 2014, the Adwoa Safo Foundation has built a reputation for sustained support to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups across Ghana, and the day’s donation was a continuation of that legacy.
The Foundation presented an array of essential items to the hospital, including eight bags of rice, 29 bags of sachet water, packs of plantain chips, two packs each of Milo and milk, 15 packs of toilet rolls, four packs of drinks, three bottles of Dettol, 10 bottles of cleaning detergent, 10 packs of mosquito nets, and a 43-inch television set. Going a step further, Adwoa Safo pledged to renovate one of the hospital’s dilapidated wards, a commitment that speaks directly to the kind of structural support the facility so desperately needs.
The gesture was received with heartfelt gratitude by the Medical Director of Pantang Hospital, Dr Maalug Yennusum, who described the intervention as both timely and deeply appreciated. He took the opportunity to brief Adwoa Safo on ongoing development efforts at the facility, including farming projects designed to support patient feeding and generate income to cover administrative and operational costs. He also spoke of initiatives to beautify the hospital environment, with the aim of creating a more therapeutic and welcoming space for patients.
Yet beneath the progress, the challenges remain stark. Dr Yennusum painted a candid picture of a hospital stretched thin, where many patients simply cannot afford the cost of their own care.
“Most of our inmates do not even have money to pay for their treatment, so we rely heavily on support,” he said, a sobering reminder of why visits like Adwoa Safo’s matter far beyond the items donated.
He appealed to other well-meaning individuals and organisations to follow her example, calling on Ghanaians of goodwill to step in where the system has fallen short.
Source: Apexnewsgh.com