Kenya: I Will Find Long Term Solution to Doctors Strike – CS Nominee Barasa

Nairobi — Health Cabinet Secretary nominee Debra Barasa is pushing for dialogue to establish long term solutions in addressing the perennial issue of doctors strike in the country.

Barasa who was responding to questions raised during her vetting for the docket explained that consultations with doctors unions as well as county government will ensure a solution is found in human resource issues.

She spoke before the National Assembly Appointment Committee chaired by Speaker Moses Wetangula.

“I believe that the long-ter solutions are with us. We need to work together with the unions, doctors themselves, the interns, the bodies among other stakeholders to come up with a solution,” she said.

Barasa however said the solution requires financing to ensure that the Return to Work Formulas are timely implemented which will require collaboration with the National Treasury.

She argued that situation analysis needs to be prioritized so as to ensure gaps are sealed in the issues facing the health workforce in the country.

“Doctors strike has been a challenge and there is need to put in place structures .We need to work with all the stakeholders and develop action plan following that,” the health nominee said.

After 56 days of the nationwide strike, doctors will finally return to work following the signing of a return-to-work deal between their union and the government.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), which represents more than 7,000 members, went on strike on March 15 to demand payment of their salary arrears and the immediate hiring of trainee doctors, among other grievances.

The doctors’ arrears arose from a 2017 collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the union said. Doctors were also demanding the provision of adequate medical insurance coverage for themselves and their dependents.

The Kenyan health sector, which doctors say is underfunded and understaffed, is routinely beset by strikes.

A strike in 2017 lasted three months, and some doctors in individual hospitals downed their tools at various times during the COVID-19 pandemic to protest lack of personal protective equipment and other grievances.

IRENE MWANGI

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