Medics shelve strike plans again after talks with State

It was a sigh of relief for the country as doctors once again, shelved plans to paralyse services in the public health facilities across Kenya.

However, the medics strengthened their resolve to down tools if a raft of demands they issued yesterday are not met in a fortnight.

The leadership of the doctors’ union, KMPDU, said the change of heart is meant to give the Ministry of Health time to act on the grievances raised through the union in a pronouncement christened “The Ufungamano Declaration”.

“Based on the Ufungamano Declaration, failure to meet these demands and other issues that have been raised by the union will culminate into a nationwide strike,” the Union Secretary General Dr Davji Atellah said which doctors attending the meeting affirmed.

The doctors had threatened to withdraw their services from hospitals across the country, protesting delayed posting of interns and four months’ salary arrears for those already posted by the ministry, understaffing which has led to overworking of the few who are employed.

Once again, the shelving of the industrial strike is attributed to another attempt by the Ministry to persuade the medics to be patient as their issues are being looked into.

The union officials had met with Health Cabinet Secretary, Susan Wafula, an encounter that led to the Ministry committing to act before the two-week period the doctors gave.

They divulged that Nakhumicha had committed to ensure all the 895 interns posted in January are paid their salary arrears by May 22 while 360 interns, yet to be posted, are placed in the next two weeks.

“We welcome the Ministry’s communication to pay the 895 medical interns posted in January plus all their arrears next week failure to which we shall demand that all the interns withdraw their services,” DrAtellah said.

Further, the medics welcomed the promise by the Ministry to post all the remaining 360 medical interns within two weeks.

“We further demand that the government put in place measures to have annual recruitment of doctors just like it is done for the military, police and teachers until we achieve the WHO recommended doctor-patient ratio of 1:1000,” they said, stating that the current doctor to patient ratio of 1:17000, is unacceptable.

A high level meeting between the parties, held in early January this year, resolved that a pay dispute dating back to a 2017-2021 deal be completed by early March and the negotiations for new perks for 2021-2025 be initiated in February.

However, the medics revealed that none of the issues agreed have been resolved.

The parties also agreed then that intern doctors be absorbed and compensated. That too, they said, was pending.

“We want to say that in our discussions today, even if we are going to continue discussing this issue of suspending the strike of the interns, these dates are committed and these dates mean an important thing for all healthcare workers,” he said.

The officials expressed concern that the delayed payments for the interns, as meagre as they are, had subjected them to struggle to make ends meet and can barely meet their basic needs.

“Doctor interns have over the years been used to fill this gap but now this acute shortage has further been compounded with delayed posting of 360 medical interns.

“KMPDU can no longer sit and watch,” Atellah said adding that the union is concerned about the current state of healthcare in the country that needs urgent intervention.

Last Thursday, the medics called off a similar strike threat, and Dr Atellah explained that the move was purely for the sake of the Kenyan patients.

“In our suspension of the strike, we considered the Kenyan. We thought as a union that it was not vital or important to take Kenyans through the pain they experience when doctors are on strike,” he said.

The strike was suspended after the government agreed to review the 2017-2022 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

In the agreement, the government had a period of 60 days until March 6, 2023.

Some of the doctors’ grievances are; basic salary adjustments, creation of call rooms, posting of 800 medical interns, employment of more doctors and provision of working tools.

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