Deliveries at referral hospital KNH surge to 100 daily as doctors strike

Kenyatta National Hospital has recorded about 100 deliveries daily, nearly three times more than usual, since doctors at Nairobi County hospitals downed their tools on September 12 over delayed salaries and promotions.

According to Director of Clinical Services Bernard Githae, the referral hospital previously recorded 30 deliveries daily and the surge in the number of patients seeking services, and not just in the labour ward, has “really stretched out and strained our human resource.”

Dr Githae told the Nation: “For instance, the casualty on August 19, had 178 patients but on September 19, we recorded about 235. Our paediatric emergencies moved from 125 in August 19 to 178 on September 19. We are noting a surge.”

These are some of the patients who had to find alternative hospitals after doctors at the county-ran Mbagathi, Pumwani Maternity and Mama Lucy Kibaki hospitals went on strike.

This comes as Nairobi County on Wednesday promised to pay all the 253 striking doctors their unpaid salaries for the past six months by Friday.

The county also promised to address their other litany of grievances.

In a rejoinder, though, the doctors said while the strike was suspended following a court order by the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi on September 16, it would be “difficult” for them to resume work.

NO MONEY
Union Secretary General Ouma Oluga said: “We have suspended the strike but our members do not have any money for transport to their work stations or even food. Unless the county will get us buses to ferry us to the hospitals.”

Governor Evans Kidero's pay announcement came hours after the medics — in white lab coats and stethoscopes — marched peacefully through the city centre Wednesday chanting, in between comical dirges, their woes and dismay at how the county was handling their concerns.

Governor Kidero told the protesting doctors that they should “check their accounts in a few days.”

He said: “It is unfortunate the strike has been on since September 12 and I cannot understand how you have not been paid for this long. Whoever is responsible for this will go home.”

Through the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, the doctors demanded their salaries, saying they had to “beg for money for food from friends and parents.”

He said that as “a pharmacist” he understood their concerns but gave them his word that all their concerns would be addressed.

The doctors are complaining about delayed promotions, the alleged failure by the county to remit statutory deductions such as the National Hospital Insurance Fund and National Social Security Fund fees in the last eight months and provide car and mortgage allowance. They are also demanding appointment letters for the doctors who had completed their probation.

He then pleaded with the health workers — most of them young doctors — to resume work as their concerns were being addressed.