Doctors and nurses go on strike

PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA Nurses strike over pay: Seth Panyako, Secretary General, Kenya National Union of Nurses addresses members from the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret town who demonstrated in the town over payment of extraneous allowances among other grievances on August 27, 2012.

What you need to know:

  • Trainees at two major referral hospitals also down tools over promised allowances
  • The 267 self-sponsored doctors - 250 at KNH and the rest at Mathare- are demanding the payment of Sh92,000 monthly stipend from the ministries of Public Health and Medical Services
  • Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union wants the government to promote all doctors who are due for promotion

The health sector was thrown into crisis on Monday when trainee doctors and nurses in three referral hospitals went on strike over their salaries and allowances.

Doctors on training at Kenyatta National Hospital and Mathare in Nairobi downed their tools demanding the payment of their allowances from the Ministry of Health while nurses at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital held demonstrations asking for a promised pay increase.

Money ‘missing’

The 267 self-sponsored doctors - 250 at KNH and the rest at Mathare- are demanding the payment of Sh92,000 monthly stipend from the ministries of Public Health and Medical Services, which was one of the key conditions of the return-to-work agreement signed between their union and the government after their strike in December 2011.

The doctors on training, who are known as registrars, spend a minimum of 60 hours a week offering clinical services, lectures and tutorials in the two hospitals.

At a press conference in Nairobi on Monday, Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) chairman Victor Ng’ani accused the government of failing to implement the agreement that was signed eight months ago.

Apart from the non-payment of registrars’ allowances, Dr Ng’ani also demanded that both ministries account for the “missing” Sh200 million which had been allocated by the Treasury for the payment of postgraduate fees for doctors.

The union also wants the government to promote all doctors who are due for promotion while the Musyimi Task Force report, which seeks to address problems in the healthcare sector including the formation of a Health Service Commission, implemented.

Dr Ng’ani, who was accompanied by KMPDU secretary-general Were Onyino and other officials, warned that if the demands were not met within 21 days, the union would call on all its members to join and support the registrars’ strike.

The chairman also took issue with the appointment of Mr Richard Lesiyampe as the KNH chief executive, saying the post at the country’s main referral and teaching hospital should be held by a doctor trained in management.

In Eldoret, nurses at the Moi Referral Hospital started holding demonstrations, leaving many patients unattended.

Mr Seth Panyako, the secretary-general secretary of the nurses union said they wanted house allowances increased as promised by the hospital’s board.