Health workers have made good their threat to boycott work to push the government to implement a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) they signed in June 2013.
This is after the 21-day strike notice they issued on November 14 expired on Monday.
Dr Fredrick Oluga, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) general secretary, on Monday told NTV that they were keeping off hospitals because the government had dishonoured the CBA for three years.
Their strike is in defiance of a temporary order by the Employment and Labour Relations Court on Friday stopping industrial action , and calls by Health CS Cleopa Mailu and Council of Governors to work as talks continue.
1: 16,000 RATIO
The medics are pushing for review of job groups, promotions, deployment and transfer of medical officers, as well as remuneration, according to the inked CBA.
In particular, the document addresses understaffing, with the ministry asked to employ at least 1,200 doctors yearly over the next four years to reduce the doctor-patient ratio.
There is one doctor for at least 16,000 Kenyans.
Coast region deputy chairperson Gitau Kagona asked their members not to report to work, accusing counties and the Health ministry of failing to show commitment to improve the working conditions of health staff.
BIG ISSUE
Dr Kagona said KMPDU has been pushing stakeholders, including the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, to implement the CBA but their efforts have failed to bear fruit.
“We cannot continue to work in an environment which does not support growth of staff. We will support this strike because we want to demand our rights and we will not relent until we are heard,” Dr Kagona said.
He said the poor patient-doctor ratio was a big issue affecting most public health facilities in Kenya.
“We have a big shortage of doctors yet our counties are sending doctors away, saying they cannot hire more doctors. We cannot have good service delivery in hospitals because of this challenge,” he added.
EMERGENCY CARE
The strike by the nearly 5,000 doctors, clinicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and interns in those groups is likely to affect service delivery at over 2,700 public health facilities — including Kenyatta National Hospital and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, where most Kenyans seek emergency medical care.
Also on strike are consultant and specialist medics, medical superintendents, county directors of health, doctor administrators, sub county medical officers, meaning a total shut down of the public-health-service delivery is looming if nothing is done to end the job boycott.
PARALYSIS BUG
A spot check by Nation.co.ke on Monday revealed that public hospitals were slowly catching the paralysis bug, with some workers set to officially launch their strike.
In North Rift, for instance, doctors are scheduled to meet at at the basketball pitch opposite the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital at 10am to begin the job boycott.
Patients were desperate at the Kakamega County Hospital after they were asked to leave at the start of the industrial action.
No doctor or nurse reported on duty and by 8.30am and most wards were deserted as patients were collected by relatives to seek treatment in private facilities.
A patient was reported to have committed suicide in a toilet next to Ward One but Nation.co.ke could not independently verify if the death was linked to the strike.
WARDS EMPTY
His wife Merceline Konga said her husband had complained that his condition was getting worse and he could succumb to his illness if taken home.
The County Executive for Health Peninah Mukabane and Health Chief Officer Brendah Makokha visited the hospital to assess the situation.
Meanwhile, most wards at the Samburu County and Referral Hospital in Maralal were empty hours before the health worker’s strike kicked off on Sunday midnight.
Relatives were transferring their patients to Wamba Mission Hospital, a private facility in Samburu East.
GUN-SHOT WOUNDS
Among those caught up in the standoff between the government and the health workers was Mr Lokupuny Lobolia who was nursing gun-shot wounds after he was attacked by bandits in Natiti Village of Baragoi.
“Lobolia was ambushed while grazing their livestock in a nearby forest next to Baragoi Polytechnic by the bandits mid last month,” his cousin Benedict Lokidong’oi told Nation.co.ke.
He said they had no other option but to transfer the patient though they did not have any money to pay at the Catholic-Church-owned facility on admission.
EXPECTANT MOTHERS
Expectant mothers awaiting Caesarean Section deliveries, children in incubators among other patients had been transferred to other private facilities in Nyahururu, some 130 kilometers away.
Journalists were on Sunday evening barred by hospital administrators from taking pictures of the private ambulances picking up patients at the government facility.
Doctors from Coast are expected to join their colleagues in Nairobi as nurses converge on Coast General Provincial Hospital for instructions from their union officials to join the strike.
In Kisii, no nurse or doctor could be seen at the Kisii Referral Hospital as patients had been left to their own devices.
In Taita Taveta, nurses have announced that they will join doctors in the strike.
OVERTIME ALLOWANCE
Mr Boniface Mrashui, the Kenya National Union of Nurses branch secretary-general, told Nation.co.ke that the county’s 300 nurse would down their tools.
The nurses accuse the county government of failing to address their grievances.
Mr Mrashui spoke even as the County’s Health Services Executive Gifton Mkaya held onto the hope that the doctors and nurses would agree to negotiations and abandon the strike.
“We have alerted hospital managers to be on the lookout Monday morning,” said Mr Mkaya.
Among the issues raised were pending payment of locum, escort and overtime allowances and promotion of nurses.
ENOUGH TIME
“None of these issues have been tackled. The agreement was that they were to be resolved before December and failure to honour the agreement had consequences,” he said.
He said the union had given the John-Mruttu leadership enough time to address the issues raised but nothing was forthcoming.
“The county government has proved they cannot honour their promises. We cannot work efficiently because of many challenges facing us at work,” he said.
Moi Hospital in Voi, the largest health referral hospital in the county, has 60 nurses and faces a shortage of 140 patient care-givers
CRISIS MEETING
Mr Maya said the county government was set to hold a meeting on the strike.
“We plan to hold a departmental meeting this morning to see how we will be able to manage the situation if the doctors and nurses fail to listen to our request to suspend the strike,” he said.
Medics have defended the strike, blaming the government for ignoring their demands and the signed CBA.
DEFENDED STRIKE
Dr Oluga on Sunday said doctors would not resume work until the government meets their demands.
“We are fighting for wananchi because the agreement will see the number of doctors increase and that they are better trained,” said Dr Oluga. “We have been lenient with our demands.”
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