MPs seek lasting cure to medical interns pay row

Lawmakers now want the Ministry of Health, Public Service Commission (PSC), Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) and all relevant stakeholders to come up with a comprehensive policy proposal to address the issue concerning postings and disparities in the payment of stipends to medical interns.

The MPs said that there is a need to address the issue of the medical interns as the delay in posting them interrupts service delivery in county health facilities.

 In a report tabled in the National Assembly, the MPs who sit in the Public Petitions Committee, chaired by Kitui East MP Nimrod Mbai, raised concerns that there are clear disparities in remuneration across the different cadres of health workers.

According to the legislators, the disparity was occasioned by the fact that the ministry was allocated Sh5.7 billion to cater for the internship programme, which was not enough to place all the interns at the initial stipend rates.

The committee issued the said directive after it considered a public petition by Health Committee chairperson Robert Pukose.

Another strike

Pukose, who is also MP for Endebess constituency, petitioned the committee to investigate the reasons for the failure by the ministry to facilitate the posting of graduate interns for mandatory internship from September 2023.  Medical students are required to undertake a mandatory one-year post university internship before they are licenced.

The MP also wanted the committee to inquire into circumstances surrounding the failure by the ministry to transition workers contracted under UHC (Universal Health Coverage) in 2020 to permanent and pensionable terms

The release of the report comes hardly a week after doctors and nurses announced that from December 22 they will down their tools following the government’s failure to honour commitments made after the last strike. Doctors under the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union (KMPDU) accused the government of not implementing key provisions in the return-to-work agreement.

Kenya National Union of Nurses on its part issued a 21-day strike notice, citing widespread discrimination and failure to meet earlier agreements.