The Western Regional Director of the Ghana Health Services, Dr. Yaw Ofori Yeboah says government is making arrangement to settle the medical bills of all the victims in the Apeatse explosion.

The reimbursement complies with a promise by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia when he visited the victims on Friday, January 21, 2022, that government will bear the cost of their medical expenses.

“I am glad to inform you that reimbursement arrangements have been made. As you can imagine, at the early stage of the emergency, the focus was rightly on ensuring blood and other critical life-saving items were mobilized for the injured.

“We are now collating expenditures from various health facilities for immediate reimbursement,” the Regional Director said.

According to Dr. Yaw Ofori Yeboah, 348 accident victims from the Apeatse explosion who were sent to various health facilities in the Western Region with life-threatening abdominal injuries, leg injuries, and facial injuries, were receiving free medical care, however, two of the victims died.

Speaking during an emergency press conference on Friday, January 28, 2022, at the Regional Health Directorate to set the record straight on why relatives of two victims paid some monies during the emergency, he explained that the facilities where the two victims were receiving treatment ran out of some essential items such as orthopedic plates and some drugs.

Therefore, their relatives bought these items from private sources.

However, the Regional Health Directorate has already directed the facilities in charge to fully refund the money taken from the families and rather include them in the bills being collated for reimbursement.

He echoed the government’s decision to offer free care to the accident victims and stressed that all Ghana Health Service facilities in the Western Region will continue to offer free care.

Dr. Ofori Yeboah said a health post has been set up at the internally displaced persons site to provide essential primary care.

Psycho-social support has also been arranged for the survivors and relatives.

Again, a team of ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialists have been sent to conduct a hearing assessment since 40 residents of Apeatse are reported to be having problems with their hearing.