Stakeholders meet to avert doctors’ strike
By George.Kebaso, January 4, 2023It is D-day for Kenyans to know if medical services in the country will be disrupted as the doctors dig in on their demands.
Ministry of Health, Council of Governors and the doctor’s union are expected to issue a joint statement, hopefully to halt the planned countrywide strike with Afya House dangling a carrot for the medics.
Last Friday, the Ministry resolved to post interns and facilitate their payment in its efforts to avert the looming strike.
The industrial action scheduled for next week was announced by the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) last month.
“We will not relent on the planned strike if our demands as captured in the Collective Bargaining Agreement are not fully implemented,” the Union Secretary General, Dr Davji Bhimji stated after a meeting with the Health Cabinet Secretary, Susan Wafula at Afya House last Friday. However, the CS committed to the obligation of the doctors during the meeting which sought to review progress made towards resolution of contentious issues.
Medical interns
Wafula is understood to have issued a directive requiring that all medical interns be posted in batches beginning in the middle of this month.
“Yes, the CS made a commitment to absorb the over 5, 000 interns whom most of the counties have been using as main doctors,” Bhimji said.
In the strike notice, KMPDU accuses the government of failing to implement the 2017-2021 CBA.
Posting of interns, employment of more doctors, creation of call rooms and basic salary adjustments are among a raft of agreements contained in the CBA that the doctors’ umbrella union want addressed.
In a statement before Christmas as she took stock of her first 100 days in office the CS, while acknowledging the critical role of the workforce in healthcare delivery, she urged KMPDU and other labour unions in the health sector to embrace dialogue in resolving challenges they encounter. “As a believer in professionalism, dialogue and cooperation, I am certain that we will succeed corporately in delivering health services to Kenyans.
Strike notice
“Therefore I implore doctors and indeed the entire health workforce to be empathetic during this festive season as we engage the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union on the strike notice issued by the Union,” she said in a statement, signalling the start of dialogue between the doctors and her office. The Health CS promised a speedy resolution of the issues raised by the union.
Bhimji later expressed interest in the ongoing talks with the government, noting they were apparently bearing fruit.
“In the meantime, the CS undertook to ensure that MoH will post Medical Interns by 2nd week of January 2023 and payment of post-graduate fees to be facilitated in due course.”
In view of this, yesterday further consultations took place between various stakeholders in the health sector and the Ministry.
Today therefore, it is hoped that a comprehensive statement to that effect will be issued before the planned industrial action that’s expected to kick off this Friday.
He said the Union had called the ministry to action to deliberate on the implementation of the two Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations of 2017-2021 and 2021-2025 which is their main concern in the planned strike.
Among other issues in line for discussions include; non -remittance of statutory deductions and insurance premiums, comprehensive medical insurance for all doctors, employment of all doctors currently unemployed, and provision of adequate pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical supplies.
Others are post-graduate training and promotion of doctors, posting of all interns, creation of centralized management of the human resource, call allowances for medical practitioners in universities, car loans and house mortgages and employment of doctors on permanent and pensionable terms. The CoG had also moved to stop the planned strike by committing to ensure the union’s demands are met by the