Striking doctors tweet their woes

• On Twitter, using the hashtag #peremendemovement, the health workers painted a picture of the current state of public health facilities and working conditions countrywide.
• The doctors downed their tools on September 13 to push for the implementation of a pay deal struck in December last year between the union and the government.
• Return-to-work talks between the Medical Services ministry and the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union have ended in a stalemate and the doctors have vowed to continue with the strike.

Striking doctors have taken their agitation to social media in a bid to present their woes on the ongoing salary stalemate .

A group of about 10 doctors, each on his/her laptop, tweeted about the rot in public health institutions and poor working conditions that they said should be improved.

On Twitter, using the hashtag #peremendemovement, the health workers painted a picture of the current state of public health facilities and working conditions countrywide.

“Having to turn away a begging mother and her wailing baby at the pharmacy because you lack the antibiotic her baby needs,” read one of the tweets.

“More than 3/4 of all deliveries in Nairobi are conducted at Pumwani Maternity Hospital and it has no neo-natal Intensive Care Unit,” read another tweet.

“Registrars are not interns; they are consultants in training. They run Kenya’s largest referral hospitals. Pay them,” they tweeted.

“Spare a thought for a mother being carried by a wheelbarrow to a hospital 20km away,” read another tweet.

The doctors downed their tools on September 13 to push for the implementation of a pay deal struck in December last year between the union and the government.

Return-to-work talks

They also want the government to hire more health staff and commit more funds towards improving the country’s health sector.

Return-to-work talks between the Medical Services ministry and the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union have ended in a stalemate and the doctors have vowed to continue with the strike. (READ: Talks fail to end doctors’ strike)

They also vowed to continue with their social media campaign today at an undisclosed location until the above issues were addressed.

Meanwhile, uncertainty continues to engulf the public health sector following a disagreement between the union and the government over the return-to-work formula.

On Tuesday evening, the union and ministry officials met for the third time at Afya House to finalise details and sign the deal they reached on Sunday, but sources said the government was evasive on actual timelines.

After a two-day meeting chaired at the weekend by assistant minister Kazungu Kambi, the doctors reached a temporary deal with the government in what signalled an end to the three-week labour crisis in public hospitals.