Hold talks with health workers urgently to end painful strike

Turkana medics protest on the streets of Lodwar town, demanding promotions. The health workers said they will not return to work until they get their promotion letters. [Bakari Ang'ela, Standard]

Industrial action by nurses and clinical officers began yesterday. According to the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (Kuco) General Secretary George Gibore, talks between the union and government officials had failed to produce the desired results.

Kuco has demanded the recruitment of an additional 3,000 clinical officers, the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and comprehensive medical and group life covers.

Only 19 out of the 47 counties fall under the National Health Insurance Fund. This means most of the health workers do not have medical cover, yet in 2019/2020 Financial Year, Sh500 million was allocated for that purpose.

Lack of a legal framework on how the money should be used resulted in the money being returned to the National Treasury.

All is not lost though. A ray of hope lingered after doctors, who would also have commenced their strike yesterday, postponed it for 14 days to give dialogue a chance.

The decision might have been made in response to a request by National Assembly Health Committee vice chairman Joshua Kutuny to the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board (KMPPDB) to give the government more time to consider their demands.The strike by nurses and clinical officers comes at the worst possible time. We are in the midst of a pandemic that requires the input of every single health worker to defeat.

In the past week, the Ministry of Health has reported that the coronavirus positivity rate had gone down to 8.39 from 9.58 per cent on December 5. We risk losing all the gains that we have made if the strike by health workers continues.

Patients have been left stranded in public hospitals across the country. In Embu Level 5 Hospital, for instance, a patient with breathing complications died from lack of attention after arriving at the hospital only to find staff on strike. Even though doctors are still on duty, they cannot play the role of nurses and clinical officers.

Kenyans expect mutual goodwill to be built around KMPPDB’s willingness to put the doctors’ strike on hold for a period of two weeks. That is an act of selflessness, a demonstration of goodwill that should be replicated by the government.

It takes two to strike a deal, thus, the government should come to the negotiating table with an open mind and state its case.

There could be extenuating reasons for its inability to meet all the demands by doctors, but staying away from the negotiating table cannot solve anything. It will only cause deaths.