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Roundup: Kenya deploys military doctors to offer emergency services as medics strike continues

Xinhua, December 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Kenyan government on Friday deployed the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) doctors to attend to emergency cases at the country's largest referral hospital in Nairobi amid crisis in the health sector due to the ongoing strike.

KDF spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Njuguna said the military doctors will offer services at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) after 290 specialists joined the ongoing medics' strike which entered its fifth day.

He said the deployment of doctors is part of KDF duties of alleviating sufferings, adding that the military has already sent enough personnel at KNH. Njuguna said the doctors would remain at the hospital until the strike is over.

"Our doctors have gone to KNH to assist the patients suffering from the strike by doctors. They will remain until the ongoing strike is over. That is part of our mandate and we have stepped in to help the needy cases there. We have specialists to attend to them," Njuguna said.

The deployment came hours after President Uhuru Kenyatta urged doctors to return to work and not to make innocent patients suffer.

Kenyatta said the government was keen on ensuring that issues that staged the strike are resolved and a permanent solution found.

The deployment of doctors was prompted by the move by 200 consultants attached to the largest referral hospital joined their striking colleagues to push for the implementation of the 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that awarded them a 300 percent pay increment and agreed to employ more doctors and nurses to reduce their workload and doctor to patient ratio from the current 1:16,000.

The strike by the health workers has dealt a major blow to thousands of patients since the country's largest population depends on public health facilities.

Gory pictures of agony, misery and pain are all written on the faces of the patients who are in most cases turned away or left unattended.

Meanwhile, the health ministry said the government has offered to increase pay perk for striking doctors of the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union effective January 1, 2017.

However, the proposal which was fronted by the National and County governments on Wednesday after extensive meetings has been rejected by the doctors.

The two arms of the government have also committed not to victimizing or taking disciplinary action against members of the union for participating in the ongoing industrial action.

The ministry said efforts to permanently, amicably and sustainably resolve the underlying issues are ongoing. Endit