Public hospitals could face fresh disruption in December after nurses and clinical officers separately threatened industrial action over pay and policy disputes. The warning came on 2018-11-20, with both groups saying their grievances had not been resolved.
The Kenya Union of Nurses said it had served the Ministry of Health and county governments with a 21-day strike notice. Secretary general Seth Panyako said members would stop work on December 10 if the return-to-work formula signed in November 2017 was not fully implemented by December 9.
“We have made several attempts through correspondence to your offices, including requesting a meeting, but to date nothing tangible has been forthcoming,” Panyako said.
Under the agreement signed on November 2, 2017, the national and county governments committed to raise the nurses’ service allowance by Sh10,000 in three stages. The increments were set at Sh3,000 in the 2018-19 financial year, Sh3,500 in 2019-20 and another Sh3,500 in 2020-21.
Once the deal is fully carried out, the service allowance will rise to Sh30,000 from Sh20,000. The same agreement also provided for a Sh5,000 increase in the annual uniform allowance, to take effect in July.
Panyako warned that if the terms were still not in place after the 21 days, nurses in county governments and national referral facilities would go on strike.
Clinical officers were also pressing the National Hospital Insurance Fund to change policies they say limit their work. They want restrictions removed so they can conduct diagnostic imaging, pre-authorise procedures for patients and have hospitals registered under the Clinical Officers Council listed among NHIF service providers.
Kenya Union of Clinical Officers general secretary George Maroah said the current policies had hurt the delivery of quality health care services. “Our members’ pleas have not been heard for more than a year, now leading to discrimination of our members and subsequent suffering of patients who are NHIF accredited,” Maroah said.
He said the Clinical Officers Act 2017 gives the Clinical Officers Council the mandate to license facilities owned by clinical officers and have them accredited to offer NHIF services. Maroah also argued that limiting clinical officers from treating certain patients goes against Article 41 of the Constitution.
The twin threats raised the prospect of another difficult period for patients, especially after last year’s strike paralysed operations in public hospitals and led to deaths of patients.
