Exodus hits public hospitals as nurses seek jobs abroad
By Winstone.Chiseremi, February 19, 2024
About 120 out of 500 nurses working in Uasin Gishu county-run hospitals have resigned and sought greener pastures overseas in the past three years, Kenya National Union of Nurses has revealed.
The union Uasin Gishu branch Secretary Kleen Mutai said that the majority of the nurses have migrated to the United States of America, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and Finland among other European countries.
Speaking to the media in Eldoret town yesterday, Mutai said the most hit with the mass exodus of well trained and skilled healthcare service providers are levels three and four hospitals in the region.
According to Mutai, poor remuneration, lack of proper career progression, understaffing in hospitals and poor working environment are some of the reasons forcing the medics to the country for greener pastures.
Mutai added that those exiting the service at the county’s-run level three and four hospitals in search of greener pasture abroad are between the age of 30 and 45 years.
The unionist regretted that most of the medics who have undergone specialised training in critical areas of health like ICU have left the country in search of greener pastures thereby, causing huge shortage of staff in county run 171 hospitals.
“The number of nurses exiting the county-run hospitals to seek greener pastures overseas is increasing at an alarming rate yearly due to high pay the hospitals in Europe are offering compared to what they are earning in the country,” said Mutai.
He implored upon the county government of Uasin Gishu to allocate more funds to the health sector which will help the devolved unit to hire more nurses owing to understaffing in majority of the hospitals across the county.
Medical services
Mutai termed as worrying the patient ratio especially in level two public hospitals in far flung areas of the expansive county.
He said that one dispensary was being manned by one person and yet the people seeking medical services at the facility were nearly 30.
“You find that when the nurse in charge of the said dispensary is sick for a week the facility will remain closed until he or she reports back to duty after recovery thereby causing inconvenience to those seeking services at the hospital,” noted Mutai.