Service delivery is facing a severe strain at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) with a shortage of more than 1,000 nurses.

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Hospital CEO Dr Phillip Kirwa said many nurses have left the hospital in the recent past, often to seek greener pastures abroad.

“We have others who have left through natural attrition, but we have not been able to replace them,” Kirwa said.

The hospital is currently carrying out a staff assessment to determine the exact number of those required to address the shortage.

Kirwa says the hospital would soon embark on a recruitment of critical staff to replace those who left so that it can operate smoothly.

He said the hospital had a huge payroll, which takes up more than 70 per cent of its budget.

He said the hospital had a shortfall of capitation from the government but extra funding will be provided through a supplementary budget.

He spoke days after unions representing healthcare workers at the hospital suspended for two weeks a general strike that was to commence a week ago.

Staff shortage, particularly nurses, was among the issues raised by the unions.

Union officials signed a deal with the hospital management to give the government time to implement their demands, including financial obligations amounting to more than Sh5 billion.

Kirwa said they held fruitful engagements with the unions to avert the strike that would have disrupted services at the facility. MTRH is the second-largest referral hospital in the country.

The CEO said the hospital had negotiated a workable formulation that will enable the facility to remit statutory deductions from the workers’ payroll.

The workers were demanding remittance of over Sh3 billion, mostly for the pension scheme.

“We have also addressed other matters touching on the Collective Bargaining Agreements and those concerning the welfare of the employees,” Kirwa said.

Kirwa said the hospital had received its remittances from the Social Health Authority, which would enable smooth operations and services to patients.

MTRH has received Sh2 billion from SHA and is expecting another Sh1 billion in the coming weeks.

In terms of capitation from the Treasury, Kirwa said the hospital has so far received Sh4.6 billion and was awaiting another Sh1.5 billion.

Kirwa said the money will enable the hospital to sort out most of its challenges. “We are grateful that the unions have agreed to suspend the strike as we work to implement what we have agreed on,” he added.

Dr Edwin Rono, the branch secretary of the doctors' union KMPDU, said they were happy that the management had intervened to avert the strike by the workers.

Xavier Wamalwa from the clinical officers union said the strike was to push for the welfare of the workers and patients at the hospital.

“We have agreed on several issues, especially the remittance of pension scheme deductions. We are suspending the union caucus strike for two weeks and if our demands are not met, then we will resume from where we left,” Wamalwa said when they announced the suspension of the strike last week.