Doctors seek information on procurement of mobile clinics
An officer from the National Youth Service (NYS) walks near some of the 99 mobile clinics imported from China by Estama Investments that are in the NYS camp in Miritini, Mombasa on October 30, 2016. PHOTO | LABAN WALLOGA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
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It further demands that the ministry that has lately been engulfed by accusations of corruption, account for Sh1.6 billion that was meant to promote and pay doctors, reimburse maternity care offered by counties and pay tuition fees for doctors undergoing specialist training during the 2015-2016 financial year.
- According to the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, the ministry should publish the policy direction, public participation and stakeholder involvement that resolved for the purchase of the container clinics meant to provide easy access to health services in slums.
A doctors’ union has demanded that the Health ministry publish the procedures it followed in procuring the 100 mobile clinics at the heart of a controversial audit report.
It further demands that the ministry that has lately been engulfed by accusations of corruption, account for Sh1.6 billion that was meant to promote and pay doctors, reimburse maternity care offered by counties and pay tuition fees for doctors undergoing specialist training during the 2015-2016 financial year.
According to the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), the ministry should publish the policy direction, public participation and stakeholder involvement that resolved for the purchase of the container clinics meant to provide easy access to health services in slums, claiming that the ministry bypassed an important constitutional requirement.
“They must also explain recurrent costs of human resources, commodity supplies and maintenance and who would shoulder the budgetary implications given that each and every container clinic shall require at least 10 health employees among them 300 doctors,” said union secretary-general Ouma Oluga, in a statement sent to newsrooms on Wednesday.
The fully equipped 40-foot container clinics imported by Estama Investments are lying at the National Youth Service yard at Miritini in Mombasa County, six months after they were sourced from China.
NEW REVELATIONS
The lengthy stay of the containers at the yard has brought to light new revelations on the Sh5.2 billion health scandal.
The union suggested that the ministry should consider introducing pay slips for medical interns to serve as evidence of salary payment.
“Over 1,000 interns per year have been paid through means that leave the employees with no evidence of salary payments. And that deductions made from their salaries have been criminally uncounted for by the human resource department,” said Dr Oluga.
He added that the cost of bringing in a private auditor as earlier indicated by Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu should not be shouldered by taxpayers, arguing that the office of the Auditor-General was capable of carrying out the audit and providing answers.
“If anything, interim reports revealed misplaced health priorities and expenditure,” said Dr Oluga, while calling for the auditing of other arms of the ministry such as the Kenya Medical Research Institute, National Aids and STI Control Programme, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and the Kenyatta National Hospital.
