Politics and policy
A patient waiting for treatment sleeps outside Coast general hospital during the doctors strike in August. PHOTO | FILE
By SARAH OOKO, sooko@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- Dr Ouma Oluga, the secretary-general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentist Union (KMPDU) told the Business Daily that this year alone, 800 doctors had resigned from the public sector.
Health workers kept their profession top of the
national agenda for the second year in a row with calls for strikes that
caused intermittent paralysis of services throughout the year.
At the centre of the strikes are labour disputes pitting
doctors against the workers that have their roots in the national
government’s handling of the devolution of health services which, they
claim, left them a poorly paid lot working in horrible conditions.
Dr Ouma Oluga, the secretary-general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentist Union (KMPDU) told the Business Daily that this year alone, 800 doctors had resigned from the public sector.
“These are patriotic doctors who would have liked
to work with the government, but the working conditions are terrible and
they couldn’t take it anymore.”
That number has, however, been disputed with
official statistics showing that some counties like Tana River have for
the first time since independence employed and retained qualified
doctors thanks to devolution.
Under the centralised system, the majority of the
doctors preferred to work in Nairobi and surrounding counties like
Kiambu that enabled them to remain government payroll while at the same
time earn extra income working in private hospitals.
Dr Oluga reckons that despite the high level of
support for devolution among doctors the chaotic manner in which the
services were devolved left a bitter taste in their mouths.
“We know that some counties are trying. But others
keep frustrating us. They don’t understand the nature of our work and
the history behind the salaries we get,” he said.
KMPDU has recently decided to petition the council
of governors asking them to address the many challenges in the public
health system to avert disruption of services in 2015.
The union has now issued an ultimatum to the
government, warning that doctors will down their tools if the Collective
Bargaining Agreement (CBA) it signed with the Ministry of Health is not
registered by December 27th.
“This time round, doctors in both the public and
private hospitals will go on strike,” Dr Oluga warned adding that one
and a half years had since elapsed with the Salaries and Remuneration
Commission sitting on the CBA without effecting or even registering it.
“We have always had challenges but devolution only
made them more apparent,” he said insisting that the CBA offers
sustainable solutions to all the challenges.
Among other things, the CBA proposes a Sh300 per
cent salary increase for doctors, a risk allowance of Sh70,000 and the
establishment of a health insurance scheme for doctors.
Kenyans are thus closing the year with a heavy cloud of uncertainty hanging over the country’s healthcare system.
No comments :
Post a Comment