Doctors and Cleopa Mailu ink CBA
What you need to know:
- The document is the first of three others that will be signed between the medics and their three employers.
- The CBA was at the center of the strike that began in December 5, 2016, and ended in March 14 this year.
The government has signed a collective bargaining agreement with doctors, which will see the lowest paid medic (intern) earn Sh212,989 and the highest paid medic earn about Sh814,000.
The document signed Friday between the Ministry of Health and the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union will be effective today and will hold until the next four years.
The document is the first of three others that will be signed between the medics and their three employers: the ministry of Health, the semi-autonomous bodies like Kenyatta National Hospital and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, as well as the counties.
PUBLIC FACILITIES
Given the numbers of medics, this is going to cost the taxpayer a few billions of shillings.
As at March this year, there were 7,414 doctors and dentists who are active in Kenya even though 12,025 are registered.
The country produces about 250 pharmacists every year.
Except for dentists and pharmacists, as explained in the recent Kenya Healthcare Workforce Report, more than 70 per cent of doctors are employed in public facilities.
COUNTY DOCTORS
In a brief statement sent to the media the Cabinet Secretary for Health Cleopa Mailu said that the document will end the “long standing contention between KMPDU and the ministry”.
Chairman of the union Samuel Oroko said the agreement was one between 700 medics who are paid directly by the Ministry of Health such as those employed in Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital, the National Spinal Injury Hospital and those working directly for the Ministry of Health.
The one with the county government will be signed next week.
The counties employ more than 80 per cent of doctors.
DOCTORS' STRIKE
Dr Oroko said that negotiations are also under way to sign one between Kenyatta National Hospital and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, which collectively employ about another 500 medics.
“There is not much difference in the CBAs as they borrow from the one that we have just signed,” he said.
The CBA was at the center of the strike that began in December 5, 2016, and ended in March 14 this year and went down as Kenya’s longest national strike after independence.
Apart from the monetary gains, the document will improve the working conditions for medics in public hospitals.
HEALTH INSURANCE
Upon graduation and completion of internships, a medical officer will be placed in Job Group M.
Considered the “donkeys of the hospitals” for the amount of work they do, the interns seem to have benefited a lot from the CBA.
They will be paid not later than a month after they have worked in their station and will only work for 40 hours a week.
They will also comprehensive health insurance scheme for the civil Servants.
Dr Lukoye Atwoli, Kenya Medical Association’s honorary secretary, said that the biggest step now would be the implementation.
