UN officials visit flood, fire victims

Source: Daily Graphic Ghana  -  Representatives from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) yesterday visited victims of the flood and fire disaster who are on admission at the 37 Military Hospital.

The visit was to afford the delegation the opportunity to ascertain the health conditions of the victims and explore avenues where they could be of support to the victims.

The delegation, made up of the Country Representative of the WHO, Dr Magda Robalo, and the UNDP Resident Co-ordinator to Ghana, Mrs Christine Evans-Klock, were accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Victor Bampoe.

The visit was also to let the delegation have a first-hand understanding of the responses and quality of care given to the victims of the June 3, 2015 disaster.

Apart from the more than 150 victims who died in the flood and fire disaster, there are 58 in- patients who are on admission at the 37 Military Hospital, the Police Hospital and the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

Thirty-six are on admission at the 37 Military Hospital, 12 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and 10 at the Police Hospital.

There are also many others who visit the various hospitals daily for treatment and medical check-up. While interacting with the delegation, a nursing officer at the 37 Military Hospital, Madam Leticia Kagbor, said most of the victims were getting better, while those who had been sent home were under critical observation.

She explained that most of the patients had superficial burns which were likely to heal by themselves after some time.

She appealed to the public to donate more blood for the victims. Dr Robalo said the WHO was ready to offer assistance to the government of Ghana in its efforts to deal with the disaster, especially the victims.

Although the organisation had not decided on the kind of assistance to give to Ghana yet, she said it would support the efforts by responding to the disaster if the government requested it.

On the victims’ conditions, she said it was critical that they were given quality care, adding that that was exactly what she had observed at the 37 Military Hospital.

“The medical team is doing well from what I have observed and I think they are doing their best,” she said.

For her part, Mrs Evans-Klock mentioned the UN’s readiness to work closely with its local partners to support the victims of the June 3, 2015 flood and fire disaster in Accra.

Mr Bampoe told the delegation that the government had decided to foot the medical bills of all the victims and also provide consumables for the various hospitals to assist their work.

On Wednesday, June 3, 2015, parts of the city were submerged in water after more than six hours of downpour, claiming more than 150 lives.

A number of people sustained various degrees of injury and properties worth hundreds of thousands of Ghana Cedis were destroyed by the floods.