No pay for striking medics, Health CS Susan Nakhumicha now says
From left: Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria, Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha, Head of Public Service Felix Koskei, and Chairperson of the Council of Governors Anne Waiguru address the media on the doctors’ strike at Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi April 22.
What you need to know:
- Nakhumicha says striking health workers will not be paid.
- The health workers strike, she said, is like a wound that is often nursed in a bandage without a permanent solution.
- Kenya Medical Association attributed the prolonged industrial action and job dissatisfaction to poor management.
Striking health workers will not be paid for failing to show up at their work stations, Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Susan Nakhumicha has said.
CS Nakhumicha said the government has agreed to most of the doctors demands, with only few issues yet to be tackled.
According to the Health CS, out of the 19 demands presented by the striking medics, the government has considered 18, so far.
"If someone does not work for 40 days, should they be paid? It is the person who has worked that deserves to be paid," said CS Nakhumicha.
CS Nakhumicha, who spoke in Kisumu during the World Malaria Day celebration, said that it is a high time the government resolved issues around health workers strike, that has been a concern for a long time.
The health workers strike, she said, is like a wound that is often nursed in a bandage without a permanent solution.
"I want to call upon the doctors to come back to work, let us treat this wound so that in future, we do not have a similar issue," said the CS.
Meanwhile, some counties have started issuing dismissal letters to doctors who are yet to return to work. The counties accused the doctors of breaching their contracts.
As at Wednesday evening, tens of doctors from 17 counties had received their dismissal letters, for failure to report to work.
The nationwide disruptions of health services in public hospitals, has entered its sixth week.The doctors are blaming the stalemate on their exclusion from national decision-making bodies.
Kenya Medical Association (KMA) attributed the prolonged industrial action and job dissatisfaction to poor management.
“The role of the doctor in governance and leadership in health sector continues to be eroded,” the association’s President Dr Simon Kigondu said yesterday during the 51st KMA Annual Scientific Conference in Kisumu.
The medics are demanding that the government honours the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Among the contentious issues are salaries, posting and remuneration of interns. KMA noted that failure to establish Health Service Commission could also destabilise the critical sector.
“Having a centralised mechanism for managing human resources for health, will promote professional competence and ensure equity in decisions that relate to health services,” Dr Kigondu said.
As the stalemate persists, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH) Chief Executive Officer Dr Richard Lesiyampe appealed for sobriety.
“An urgent solution should be reached to solve the perennial issues that force medics to go to the streets every now and then. The antagonists should come together. It should not be a matter of war because we continue to lose patients day by day,” he said.
Amnesty International has expressed concern by the unfoldings in the hospitals, mortuaries and homes as patients are left on their own.
“We are half way into the longest strike in history, which is the 2017 strike that took 100 days to resolve,” Amnesty Executive Director Houghton Irungu said.
Despite the progress made on the negotiations, he said, it appears the country is walking the same route that saw the medics on a go slow for over three months in 2017.
And an Amnesty International report that covers over 155 countries globally, narrowed on Kenya where it flagged the manner that the National Police Service (NPS) manages public order and the right to assembly.
According to the civil society, the Kenya Medical Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) Secretary-General Davji Atella was “shot with teargas, intentionally while exercising the right to picket.”
Over the last one year, the report said, security forces continued to enjoy impunity for extrajudicial killings, unlawful killings and enforced disappearances.
- Additional reporting by Daniel Ogetta and Victor Raballa
