NRSA settle bill of accident victim
The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), last Friday settled the bill of a 46-year-old carpenter at the Accident Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Accra.
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The carpenter, Michael Avisey, had been on admission at the hospital and could not settle his bills totalling GH¢3,200 after he was discharged and was thus detained.
The cheque for the bill was presented by the Director of Planning and Programmes of the NRSA, Martin Afram.
In a brief remark, Mr Afram said the gesture was in response to an appeal by the hospital staff during a durbar at the KBTH to create awareness of road crashes.
The event was in commemoration of this year’s World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims which is observed on the third Sunday of November every year.
Durbar
This year’s event was organized by the NRSA, in collaboration with CUTS International and had technical and financial support from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS).
He, Mr Afram said at the durbar which was attended by some doctors and nurses of the hospital that, it came out that some patients admitted to the Accident Unit of the hospital could not pay their bills and Mr Avisey was one of them.
“Moved by his plight, the NRSA thus mobilized funds, to pay the bills of Mr Avisey, whose story was very moving,” Mr Afram stated.
The carpenter was knocked down by a taxi while crossing a road at Kasoa on August 27, this year.
Medical staff of the Accident Unit said the carpenter was brought to the hospital with laceration to the left eye and an open fracture on the left leg, following a referral from a clinic.
His treatment included a surgery.
A Principal Nursing Officer of the Trauma Unit of the Korle Teaching Hospital, Dora Naa Adei Kotey, on behalf of the beneficiary, thanked the NRSA and all other supporting local and international partners for the gesture and expressed the hope that other benevolent organizations would come to the aid of patients in similar situation of being detained after they had been discharged for their inability to pay their bills.
The Communication Officer of BIGRS Ghana, Ms. Mavis Obeng-Mensah described the durbar as a successful event as it was well patronized and had fruitful engagement.
She explained that the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims event is one that the NRSA and BIGRS take seriously “Since the inception of this initiative in Ghana, each year, we collaborate with the NRSA and other road safety stakeholders to organize events to commemorate this day.
The ultimate aim is to remember those we have lost through road crashes, seek justice for road crash victims and see to the reduction of road crash fatalities and injuries in Ghana”