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A health crisis is quickly unfolding as more than half of the nurses in the public sector head for retirement while most of the new entrants are applying to go overseas.
The National Nurses Association of Kenya (NNA-Kenya) is calling for the immediate recruitment of more health workers to save the sector from imminent collapse.
"It is impressive that the Government is supplying new medical equipment worth Sh38 billion but then where are the personnel?" asked NNA-Kenya National Chairman Jeremiah Maina.
The union says 62 per cent of the nurses in government facilities are today aged between 41 and 60 years with only six per cent below 30. The public sector has just about 22,000 nurses.
For every four nurses added to the workforce through training, one of them is applying to migrate overseas, the union says in its 2015/16 budgetary proposals to the national government.
But even if Kenya was to significantly increase the number of health workers, Maina says the disparity in their distribution is too wide with some countries having too few and the most inexperienced workers.
Equipment project
Meanwhile, three associations for medics have welcomed the Sh38 billion initiative to supply critical medical equipment to county hospitals but asked the Government to also improve the welfare of health workers.
The Kenya Medical Association (KMA) said although the procurement of the equipment was laudable, it may not result in enhanced health services to Kenyans if the current crisis in the health workforce is not resolved quickly.
KMA National Chair Elly Nyaim said the Government should sort out the acute shortage of health workers across the country as well as low morale which is severely impacting service provision.
"There is huge crisis that is not being given attention by the Government. Many health workers in the public service are either leaving or planning to leave their jobs due to poor pay and working conditions," he said.
The Kenya National Union of Nurses has also expressed support for the initiative but criticised the Ministry of Health for not involving stakeholders to see how best to implement it.
KNUN Secretary General Seth Panyako said that professional associations of health workers and their trade unions need to be involved from now onwards in order to make the project a success.
Secretary General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union Fred Oluga said that improving the welfare of doctors and health workers should go hand in hand with the installation of the new equipment.
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