Homa Bay doctors down tools over unmet demands

Homa Bay County Referral Hospital.

A health crisis is looming in Homa Bay county after doctors downed their tools over a raft of grievances.

The doctors, led by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union county liaison officer Ochieng Otana and Dr Ben Otieno, accused the county government of refusing to honour collective bargaining agreements.

They said they issued a 21-day strike notice last month after the county government failed to address their issues.

“We gave a notice in time but they did not listen to us. Some officials came and talked to us but what we discussed has not been implemented to date,” Otana said.

He said they have resorted to industrial action to force the county government to listen to them.

“We have held discussions but the only issue the county government has tried to address was promotion, which has not been addressed fully,” Otana said.

Otieno accused the county government of frustrating doctors and lamented that sometimes doctors suffered salary deductions whose explanations were not given.

“What our employer is doing demoralizes us from working,” Otieno said, adding that the frustration was working against the gains the county government had made in the health sector, including reduction in infant and maternal mortalities.

“We had made significant gains in infant and maternal mortality reduction but the gains are being eroded by the frustrations doctors are undergoing,” Otieno said.

He also decried an acute shortage of doctors in the county. “Understaffing denies patients services they deserve. We cannot sit down and watch the health sector grinding to a halt,” Otieno said.

The medics’ grievances include stagnation in career progression resulting from failure to promote and redesignate all doctors whose cases were pending.

They also complained of the county government’s failure to remit their outstanding statutory deductions and lack of a comprehensive medical cover, which had left them vulnerable.

Other grievances included delays in payment of salaries and allowances, and irregular removal of their members from the payroll.

Homa Bay county chief officer for health Kevin Osuri said they were putting modalities in place to negotiate with the doctors to call off the strike.

“We are aware of the strike and we are going to talk to them on how to return to work,” Osuri said.