Health workers slam BBI team for ignoring proposal to form Health Service Commission: Sick nation Tuko 23/12/2020 Masolo Mabonga
Union leaders representing striking health workers have come out guns blazing and castigated the proponents of the much-hyped Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report for ignoring their plight at their proposal to introduce a Health Service Commission.
The aggrieved health professionals accused the BBI taskforce of being blindfolded by political issues at the expense of crucial social and economic issues affecting the people, particularly workers.
President of the National Nurses Association of Kenya, Alfred Obengo, said the push to have the commission in place was aimed at enhancing efficiency in service delivery and ultimately protecting the lives of Kenyans.
English By Mohammed Yusuf Share on Facebook Print this page NAIROBI - Kenyan doctors Monday joined clinical officers and nurses in a nationwide strike that is likely to make it harder for patients to receive treatment. Doctors called the strike after talks with the government regarding pay and coronavirus protective gear broke down.
Kenya’s health facilities are facing a crisis after doctors joined other health workers to demand better pay, medical insurance coverage and better protective equipment to help them combat the coronavirus pandemic.
Chibanzi Mwachonda is the secretary general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union. On Monday, he attended the funeral of a doctor who died of the coronavirus. Speaking to journalists in Kisii county while attending the burial service, Mwachonda said the government is yet to accept their demands.
“We have no deal and the strike continues as announced.”
Mr Wachira said the ongoing talks for the past two weeks were bound to fail since neither the Ministry of Health nor Council of Governors officials were present.
“Unfortunately we were here by 10am. The secretariat (in charge of the negotiations) asked us to wait for the Labour CS and CoG chair. At 1pm we were told they were not coming,” said Kuco General Secretary George Gibore.
Mr Gibore said no healthcare worker, including the ones being hired, would return to work until the government meets all their demands.
Counties such as Kisumu have issued notices to sack medics. The notice, signed by the county Chief Officer in charge of Health and Sanitation Gregory Ganda, directed the medics to return to work in seven days, or lose their jobs.
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Patients at risk as nurses, doctors rivalry plays out
Health & Science - By
Graham Kajilwa | December 16th 2020 at 12:00:00 GMT +0300
Protesting Clinical Officers make their way to Parliament Buildings to air their grievances on December 14, 2020. [Emmanuel Mochoge, Standard]
Is there sibling rivalry between doctors and other healthcare workers?
The saying among medics that ‘doctors do the hard work, while nurses do the dirty work’ has found itself in the ongoing healthcare workers’ strike, which the Government is yet to solve.
It has become a case of two bulls fighting leaving the grass to suffer, with clinicians and nurses appearing to have been left out in the push to save patients from more suffering.
Kenya Union of Clinical Officers Chairman Peterson Wachira addresses the Press after medics downed tools yesterday. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]
Healthcare workers have stood their ground seven days into a strike that is slowly crippling the public healthcare system amid criticism from various leaders.
Meeting on Monday at Uhuru Park, healthcare workers under the leadership of Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO), have continued to criticise the government for having misplaced priorities and neglecting frontline workers amid a pandemic that has threatened lives and the economy of the country. Patriotism is not suicide and we are not ready to commit suicide in a country that does not want to appreciate its own healthcare workers, valiantly said KUCO chairperson Peterson Wachira.