Appiatse Explosion: All victims initially charged will be reimbursed – W/R Health Director

Western Region Director of the Ghana Health Services (GHS) Dr. Yaw Ofori Yeboah has revealed that arrangements have been made for the reimbursement of monies spent by victims of the Appiatse explosion currently receiving treatment at health facilities in the Region.

The reimbursement is in compliance with a declaration by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawamia, when he visited the victims Friday, January 21, that government will bear the cost of their medical expenses.

“As you can imagine, in the early stage of the emergency, the focus was rightly on ensuring that blood and other critical life-saving items were mobilised for the injured. We are now collating expenditures from the various health facilities for immediate reimbursement,” he assured

At an emergency Press Conference, the regional director said some 346 victims are receiving free treatments at various hospitals across the Region.

“Unfortunately, we ran out of some essential items such as orthopaedic plates and some drugs. Relatives of two out of the 348 cases we have attended to procured these items from private sources during the emergency.”

But he said, “the regional health directorate has already directed the “facility in charge to fully refund the expenditure incurred to the families and rather include them in the bills being collated for reimbursement.

He reiterated government’s decision to offer free care to the accident victims and stressed that all GHS facilities in the Region will continue to offer free care.

According to him, all but two out of the 348 cases seen have either been discharged or stable in hospitals.

“A health post has been set up at the internally displaced persons site at Bogoso to provide essential primary care. Psycho-social support has been arranged for the survivors and relatives. A team of ENT specialists have been sent to conduct hearing assessment. Disease surveillance activities are ongoing.”