Doctors and nurses vow to stay away from hospitals

Doctors and nurses vow to stay away from hospitals for 24 hours next Tuesday if the government does not heed their calls by Monday, December 12 mid night.

In a statement to newsrooms, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), said that the government has up to Jamhuri Day (Monday) to resolve the issues raised by the unions failure to which they will paralyse all the medical services.

“Given no solution by Monday 12th December 2016, KMPDU will call for a 24 hour complete stoppage of all clinical services in all private hospitals, private clinics, and mission hospitals on Tuesday 13^th December 2016,” read the statement in part.

The doctors, who are on their third day of strike, said that the industrial action was occasioned by three year industrial dispute concerning a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed on June 27, 2013 and effective July 1, 2013.

They accuse the government side of failing to show any good will in the negotiation process but instead threatening them with law suits.

“Talks have been called without proper communication and with intent of blackmailing the union. We have remained willing to engage the government in good faith to no avail.”
“The KMPDU team have been belittled and even disrespected by their counterparts from the government,” they added.

They now say that the only way to solve the current stalemate is by fully implementing the 2013 CBA that, among other things, will see them receive a 300% pay rise, more doctors recruited to reduce the current doctor to patient ration that stands at 1:16,000 and improve their working conditions.

They have, at the same time, called on Kenyans to join them in pushing the government to urgently resolve the issues they have raised.

“KMPDU remains very sympathetic to the suffering public and calls on all citizens to join for pushing the government to quickly end the stalemate.”