Kabaka Foundation hands over 35-bed mental health unit at Koforidua hospital

Pinned summary · as of 17:00

A new 35-bed mental health unit has been opened at the Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua and transferred to the hospital's management. The Kabaka Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, paid for the expansion and refurbishment of the existing unit, at a reported cost of GH₵1.3 million, and the ceremony took place on Friday, 25 September.

What we know

• The Kabaka Foundation enlarged and refurbished the psychiatric ward complex at Koforidua's Eastern Regional Hospital, which now offers 35 beds and carries the name of the foundation's founder, Nana Owiredu Wadie I. The work cost GH₵1.3 million.
• The unit has three wards and as many consulting rooms, along with a pharmacy, a kitchen, a space where in-patients can relax, a room for giving injections and a head of unit's office.
• Dr Damien Punguyire, the Ghana Health Service's Eastern Regional Director, said recorded mental health cases in the region climbed from 3,200 in 2016 to 5,738 in 2024 and 6,264 in 2025, a rise he put at above 100 per cent across the decade.
• Dr Punguyire also said new cases of depression and psychosis seen at health facilities in the region went up from 354 to 546 in two years, and that many people with mental health problems suffer quietly without seeking help.
• According to Dr Punguyire, the region has a serious shortage of beds for admitting patients, so people sometimes wait or are sent to facilities far from their homes. He added that only one psychiatrist covers all 33 districts and municipalities, and that psychiatric nurses and clinical psychologists are also in short supply.
• Dr Punguyire said medicines and other supplies have not been sufficient, and that some drugs needed by mental health patients fall outside the National Health Insurance Scheme, leaving families to pay for them. He also named stigma and discrimination as obstacles to care.
• Dr Punguyire said people living with mental illness often fail to get care for bodily ailments, naming high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and tuberculosis.
• Nana Owiredu Wadie I said the project keeps the foundation's promise and reflects its belief that every Ghanaian should get good healthcare, mental health care included, free of stigma. He said the unit should especially help young people struggling with substance abuse and children with mental health conditions, and that the handover fell on his birthday.
• Dr Aiden Suntaa Saanwie, the hospital's Medical Director, said mental health services have been underfunded and patients have faced stigma and discrimination. He recalled that the foundation had earlier helped the hospital with a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and he urged staff to treat patients with dignity.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

• ?
  Graphic Online reported that Daasebre Kwaku Boateng III, Omanhene of the New Juaben Traditional Area, attended the ceremony and praised Nana Owiredu Wadie I for keeping his word on mental healthcare. No other report has confirmed this.
• ?
  Starr FM quoted Dr Punguyire as saying some relatives are taken to places where patients are shackled, concealed or left behind, and that mental illness is a medical matter rather than a curse, with a greater suicide risk if it goes untreated. Other reports have not confirmed these remarks.
• ?
  Starr FM reported that the hospital's mental health unit dates from 2012, when it was set up so that patients would no longer need to be sent to Accra and other tertiary psychiatric facilities. This has not been confirmed by other reports.
• ?
  Starr FM said the hospital explained that outpatient mental health consultations moved into the main outpatient department because their old premises were turned into a clinic for diabetes and hypertension, which left scant room or privacy, and that the appointment of a permanent psychiatrist, replacing temporary doctors from Pantang, made the shortage of space more pressing. The hospital's account has not been confirmed by other reports.

Why it matters for Ghana

For families in Koforidua and the wider Eastern Region, more beds could mean that some people needing psychiatric admission no longer have to travel far from home for care. The regional health director's figures point to rising demand, limited specialist staff and medicine costs that the health insurance scheme does not cover, so the new ward addresses only part of the gap. The remarks about stigma also matter for relatives deciding whether to seek treatment for someone who is unwell.