Accra Mayor wants more health officers

Mayor of Accra, Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, has said inadequate number of public health officers in the metropolitan assembly hinders efforts to clear the city of filth.

Speaking on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class 91.3fm Tuesday March 8, the mayor told host Ekow Mensah-Shalders that the number of public health officers he has on the ground was a drop in the ocean compared to the population of Accra.

“We need to have men on the ground. AMA has about only 88 public health officers, only 88 for the city of Accra. We don’t have enough people. 88 public officers in Accra is a drop in the ocean," Mr Vanderpuije said.

“Accra has today expanded – many houses, 777,000 households in Accra, dealing with about five million if not more people. What is 88?

“So, we need to hire more people. All these students, who come from the School of Hygiene, who are walking the streets without employment, we need to engage them, we need to find a way to give them work to do”.

Dr Okoe Vanderpuije, who is seeking to represent Ablekuma South in parliament, also said he does not have to resign from his current post to focus on his political ambitions because the two jobs are linked.

“The best form of campaign is to work for the people, so, I am working for the people and on the day of the election, the people of Ablekuma South will make a decision. … I am building the Millennium City schools, I’m going to build the Tuesday market, I’m working, making sure they have good roads.

“…I am the mayor of Accra; I have the responsibility to lead out any development of the grassroots on behalf of His Excellency the President. I am doing it every day.

“Saturday [March 5] was sanitation day. You wouldn’t believe what I led the people to do. We cleaned the gutters. … Today …we have asphalted the road, the drains that were choked for many years when they constructed the gutter; they left the woods and everything in there, so, it was choking. This weekend we cleared it all out. … Today the place is looking brand new…few hands went there and we have made it beautiful. I am always working; I love to work for the people of Accra.”