BRIEF HISTORY OF PANTANG HOSPITAL

The Pantang hospital is located near Pantang Village from which it derives its name in the La Nkwatanang – Madina Municipal Assembly of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.

The hospital is 1.6 km off the Main Accra – Aburi trunk road and about 26km from the central Business area of Accra, the capital city of Ghana.

Established under the Mental Health Decree, 1972 NRCD 30, the hospital was commissioned in 1975 while partially completed, as a Regional Psychiatric Hospital with a bed capacity of five hundred (500) at the time. It is the largest of the three psychiatric hospitals in the republic of Ghana in terms of land size but second to Accra Psychiatric Hospital in terms of bed capacity.

Following the passage of a new Mental Health Bill into Law in 2012, it now derives its mandate from the Mental Health Act, 2012, ACT 846.

By the tenets of ACT 846, the hospital belongs to the Mental Health Authority that is managed by a governing body called the Mental Health Board.

Currently, there are thirty (30) operational departments. The Hospital receives psychiatric patients from all over Ghana and a few cases from neighbouring countries such as Togo, Benin, Burkina-Faso, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. Ten (10) admission wards are currently in operation (seven male and three female wards) with each ward having a bed capacity of fifty (50). There is a 24-Hour emergency Reception Centre (for psychological cases) as well as an Eye clinic.

The hospital also has a Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre, the first of its kind in the country’s public health sector which was officially commissioned in September 2009.

The out-patient department (OPD) provides free psychiatric services, as well as Primary Health Care, Maternity Block with 25 bed capacity and RCH Services to over fifteen (15) villages in its catchment area of about 10km radius on a cash and carry/NHIS basis with exemption for the aged, pregnant mothers, children under five (5) years and TB patients.

A Nursing Training College established by the Ministry of Health is located within the confines of the hospital. It runs a three (3) year Diploma course in Mental Health Nursing. Also located in the premises of the hospital is a Health Assistants/ Midwifery Training School, which is also established by MOH.