Doctors have warned of a crisis in maternal healthcare with many mothers and children left exposed owing to the ongoing strike by nurses, clinical officers and other medical workers.
The doctors who are members of the Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society (KOGS) say pregnant women are now being forced to deliver at home or in risky situations because they are unable access hospital services.
Chairman of KOGS North Rift branch Dr Richard Mogeni said the crisis in the health sector is unbearable and regretted that counties were taking advantage of the situation to illegally hire personnel.
“We are saying is enough is enough and we ask the President to turn attention to this matter in order to save lives,“ Mogeni said.
He said the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret was facing an unprecedented rise in referrals from counties yet the hospital did not have adequate support to handle the situation.
Mogeni was speaking in Eldoret during the ongoing KOGS Annual Regional Women's Health Symposium which is being attended by more than 200 doctors mostly from the maternal health sector.
“As the primary referral facility for the region, MTRH is receiving an alarming surge of critically ill patients transferred too late from lower-level hospitals,” he said.
He said expectant mothers were presenting in near-fatal conditions, suffering from advanced Postpartum Haemorrhage (PPH), severe eclampsia, uterine rupture and severe fetal distress.
“Consequently, maternity operating theatres, ICUs, HDUs, and Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) at MTRH are facing unsustainable pressure,“ he said.
KOGS says the disruption caused by the strike directly undermines national commitments under the recently launched Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere (EWENE) Acceleration Plan, supported by recent presidential engagements.
“The targets to end preventable maternal and neonatal mortality cannot be met when essential frontline healthcare teams are absent from bedside care,” he said.
The medics have raised alarm over what they term as Unassisted Home Deliveries and Obstetric Fistula Across the seven North Rift counties of Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Baringo, Samburu, Turkana, Trans Nzoia and West Pokot access where skilled care has severely collapsed.
Mogeni said thousands of women were delivering at home unassisted or with traditional birth attendants.
“Preventable fresh stillbirths, neonatal asphyxia, and maternal deaths are rising rapidly in rural and pastoralist communities,” he said.
The medics have made a passionate four point call to action urging the national government and the Council of Governors to immediately convene good-faith, time-bound negotiations with health unions in order to resolve the CBA, salary arrears, and career progression disputes.
“We also ask the government to provide emergency funding for ambulances, blood supplies and oxygen to MTRH and other facilities to aid in rescuing life,” he said.
Mogeni said they want county governments to establish emergency maternal-newborn referral corridors with 24/7 transport links to safely evacuate high-risk cases from remote areas before complications become fatal.
The medics have urged trade unions to pursue immediate negotiated settlements while maintaining humanitarian minimum service coverage in labour wards and maternity theatres.
“Childbirth cannot wait for labour disputes to end. Every preventable maternal or newborn death is a tragedy we must work together to prevent,” Mogeni said.
