The Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, is seeking assistance for the treatment and welfare of abandoned indigent mental health patients in the hospital.

The Medical Director Olugbenga Owoeye told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Lagos that more than 25 per cent of the patients on admission could not pay their bills.

Owoeye lamented that the number of such patients increased by the day. He urged Nigerians to help the indigent and abandoned psychiatric patients to offset their medical bills and meet their daily needs.

He said it had become pertinent that the public come to the aid of these people because the burden of their welfare, medications and upkeep had rested totally upon the hospital for a long time now.

According to him, the current bills and welfare upkeep of the patients, especially the indigent and those abandoned by their relatives, are currently weighing the hospital down financially.

He noted that most of the indigent and abandoned mental health patients spent the rest of their lives in the hospital premises until death calls.