Secretary of North Rift branch of the Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society Dr Joice Luhunyo speaks in Eldoret / MATHEWS NDANYIDoctors are pushing for dialogue to end the ongoing strike by health workers, which they say is causing a lot of suffering to patients in county hospitals.
The health workers on strike include nurses, clinical officers and laboratory technicians, who are protesting over failed CBAs, salary arrears and career progression disputes.
Speakers at a conference in Eldoret by the Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society (Kogs) urged President William Ruto to intervene.
“We are saying enough is enough, and we ask the President to turn attention to this matter to save lives,“ Kogs North Rift chairperson Dr Richard Mogeni said.
He spoke at Kogs’ Annual Regional Women's Health Symposium, which is was attended by more than 200 doctors, mostly from the maternal health sector.
Kogs branch secretary Dr Loice Luhunyo said the crisis in the health sector is unbearable.
She said due to non-functioning hospitals, pregnant women are now being forced to deliver at home or in risky situations because they are unable to access hospital services.
The medics 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.
He said the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret is facing an unprecedented rise in referrals from counties, yet the hospital did not have adequate support to handle the situation.
“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, severe eclampsia, uterine rupture and severe foetal distress.
“Consequently, maternity operating theatres, ICUs, HDUs and Neonatal Intensive Care Units 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 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 “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.
“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,” Dr Mogeni said.
He 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.
