Healthcare workers in the country have threatened to down their tools over delayed salary payments.
They have hit out at the government over salary delays occasioned by failure to disburse funds to counties.
In a joint statement read by Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union (KMPDU) Secretary General Dr. Davji Atellah on Tuesday, the workers have vowed to down their tools if they’re not paid their dues within the next 7 days.
They want the government to release the funds to counties with immediate effect, so as to enable them to facilitate salary payments among other things.
“It should worry any Kenyan of goodwill that close to 40 counties have neither paid healthcare workers their salaries nor remitted statutory deductions. The few that have managed to pay salaries, have reported having arrangements with banks for overdrafts and loans. We find it preposterous that government employees, especially those that provide essential services in the health sector, are continuously inundated with notifications of delayed salary payments and statutory deductions,” stated Dr. Atellah.
“Healthcare is a public good and an essential service unfortunately, the essential service providers cannot access their pay like other public servants managed by the National Government such as the independent commissions e.g. police and Teachers Service Commission. It is damning to say the least that, our members cannot afford the same services they offer. Subsequently, these affects healthcare worker’s standard of living, motivation and thereby injuring their productivity.”
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The workers further want the healthcare function to be reverted to the national government.
They also want statutory deductions to be remitted promptly, adding that a special budget should also be created for the purposes of hiring more healthcare workers annually.
“The unions demand that the government establishes mechanism to pays healthcare workers directly from a central point. A budget should be set aside for annual recruitment of 20,000 additional healthcare workers as promised to Kenyans,” Dr. Atellah added.
“The Ministry of Health (should) constitute a joint national taskforce to do a health audit and provide long-term solutions to the numerous challenges facing health service delivery in Kenya.”
“Within 7 days, counties that shall have not paid the salaries and statutory deductions should not expect healthcare workers to report on duty. It is only through this, and various other recommendations made by the union to the national government in the recent past, that we – as a country – will be able to fix healthcare and make it work for all Kenyans” Atellah said.