“We had only three options: To walk out, to go on strike as we have done and to assume everything is okay while our colleagues continue dying.”
These were the words of Kenya Union of Clinical Officers’ chairman Peterson Wachira as clinicians and nurses walked off the job or went on a go-slow more than two weeks ago on December 7.
They were joined on Monday by doctors who have similar grievances and demands.
The unions want both levels of government to provide and commit to providing adequate and quality protective gear for all healthcare workers attending to Covid-19 patients. This applies to both public and private hospitals.
Some medics have not been paid for four to 15 months. They demand their back salary.
They want all PPE lying in Kemsa stores to be released at once and distributed to health facilities.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe had ordered the consignments, which are under procurement investigations, be released and sold to counties at the current market price. That hasn’t happened.
Medics also want group life insurance to protect them and their families in case they die or are incapacitated in the line of duty by Covid-19 or anything else.
They also want comprehensive medical insurance cover to ensure healthcare workers who fall ill or are injured can access medical care without having to go through mental torture, distress and even loss of life due to accrued medical bills.
Despite Kagwe announcing medical cover for the medics, the doctors declined it, saying it unfairly excludes doctors working in county governments. It also would exclude those working in parastatals such as KNH, Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and doctors working in universities.
“Those PPE at Kemsa must be availed for doctors and other healthcare workers. By whatever mechanism, they must be availed,” KPDMU secretary-general Chibanzi Mwachonda said.
“We will not allow our members to die in the line of duty.”
They should be forced to raise funds to pay the medical bills of colleagues who have been detained in hospitals or whose bodies won’t be released by morgues over bills,” he said.
“I get calls from nurses who have been detained in hospital, the bodies of my colleagues who have passed on that cannot be released because they have not paid bills,” nurses association president Alfred Obengo said.
“You start making phone calls, which you shouldn’t have to do because this is straightforward. No health worker or Kenyan citizen should be made to pay for their bills over Covid infection,” he said.
Strikers want back pay.
For instance, Dr Stephen Mogusu who was buried on Monday in Kisii had worked for five months without salary.
Payment for services would enable them to pay rent, buy food, take care of dependents, pay school fees, get bus fare to work and generally meet their basic living costs.
In addition, they want the release of third-party deductions including loans, premiums and union dues to enable them to access services and protect them from embarrassment. Some have been listed by CRB and are and are unable to access services paid for through premiums.
The health workers also want the government to pay risk allowance of Sh30,000 per month. They say they need nutritional supplements to boost their immunity throughout the pandemic.
The unions have also been pushing for the creation of an independent health services commission to manage personnel issues
They want all their colleagues in vulnerable groups to be excused from duty until the virus is contained. They include those who are pregnant, older than 55 years and those with preexisting medical conditions.
“Almost all health workers who succumbed to Covid-19 belong to the vulnerable group, KUCO secretary-general George Gibore said.
“These deaths would have been avoided had the government heeded our advisories to excuse them from duty as they have done in Ethiopia, Ghana and Rwanda.”
Strikers want 10,000 healthcare workers, including 3,000 clinical officers and 2,000 doctors, employed and deployed to help fill the gap left by those in vulnerable groups and those who have died from the virus.
They want the government to designate and equip health facilities for healthcare workers infected by Covid-19.
To date, at least 2,800 healthcare workers have contracted the virus. Nine clinical officers, 13 doctors, and 29 nurses have died.