Officials from State House are scheduled to convene a meeting today with doctors and other key stakeholders in the healthcare sector to address the recurring strikes among medical practitioners.
This announcement was disclosed during a court hearing yesterday, as Kenyatta National Hospital filed a lawsuit against the doctors’ union, urging them to end their ongoing strike, which commenced last week.
Justice Byram Ongaya of the Employment and Labour Relations court in Nairobi last week directed parties to negotiate and agree on minimum essential services to be maintained during the doctors industrial strike so that patients do not suffer.
The court also directed the reconciliation committee to resolve the grievances in the doctors strike notice. Last week’s talks made little progress.
State counsel Oscar Eredi said Head of Public Service Felix Koskei had invited all the parties in the talks for a meeting at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre to resolve all outstanding issues that shall not have been agreed on during the Thursday meeting with the reconciliation committee.
The meeting of the reconciliation committee involves cabinet secretaries for Health, Labour and the National Treasury together with the Public Service Commission, Salaries and Remuneration Commission, the doctors Union KMPDU, all county governments and national referral hospitals.
Doctors, now in their second week of striking, are accusing the government of failing to fulfill numerous promises outlined in a collective bargaining agreement signed in 2017, following a 100-day strike that resulted in fatalities due to inadequate healthcare.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) initiated the strike to demand comprehensive medical coverage for doctors and to address the government’s delay in deploying 1,200 medical interns.
Despite a labor court directive urging the union to suspend the strike for negotiations with the government, union leaders report that 4,000 doctors are participating in the strike.
Union leaders have declared their intention to disregard the court order, citing the government’s disregard for three previous court orders to increase doctors’ basic pay and reinstate suspended medical practitioners.
In response to the doctors’ demands, the Ministry of Health stated that allocating funds for the deployment and payment of interns would necessitate KES 4.9 billion, a sum the ministry claims it does not possess.
This ongoing dispute has prompted authorities to threaten the dismissal of doctors who fail to return to work, with Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja issuing a 12-hour ultimatum for county doctors to resume their duties by Thursday morning. Sakaja warned that those who defy the directive will be replaced.
Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha echoed similar sentiments, revealing the Ministry of Health’s intention to recruit qualified unemployed medical professionals. She assured the public that healthcare services would continue, emphasizing that there are nearly 3,000 unemployed doctors available to prevent a crisis.
