Doctors vow to continue with industrial action as talks with government fails

The standoff between striking doctors and the government over honouring of posting of intern doctors is raging as the two factions disagreed on the way forward.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist Union (KMPDU) Secretary General Davji Atellah on Tuesday said the government had failed to meet their demands despite a ten-hour meeting that bore no fruit.

The doctors' union had agreed to attend a meeting between them and the Ministry of Health (MoH) to resolve the ongoing standoff about several grievances including the posting of intern doctors and reviewing doctors' remuneration.

Atellah indicated frustrations and disappointment from the failed talks, revealing that one of the conditions from the government was for the union to call off the demonstrations before engaging in talks.

"We don't know how to progress today, sadly, from the engagement I was having upstairs. On the other side we are being told to lead demonstrations and hold vigils, then afterwards we can do the engagement," he lamented.

According to him, the lobby will not in any circumstance settle for the posting of some doctor interns without seeing to it that others are deployed to their rightful stations.

While speaking, Atellah claimed that the government had proposed posting the interns in clusters, an idea that the union representatives flatly declined.

"We are retreating to sit with the National Advisory Council leadership to discuss the mechanisms we can implore to resolve this matter once and for all."

This comes days after President William Ruto vowed to resolve the stalemate with medical practitioners amid a looming strike through a notice given by KMPDU.

Responding to concerns from the young generation in X space on Friday, the Head of State explained that the government had initiated healthcare reforms to improve service provision at Kenyan hospitals.

"I met with their leadership personally and committed to clearing their arrears by year-end," he said while noting that the treasury had prioritised healthcare services and allocated sufficient funds to resolve the doctors' concerns.

Posting of interns

In a statement from Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha, since January 2023, the Ministry has posted 4,156 interns across the 6 cadres.

The cabinet secretary explained that the medics posted include 1,735 doctors broken down as follows, medical officers 1,214, pharmacists 496 and 25 dentists at a monthly rate of Sh206,400. Others include 874 nurses, 506 degree clinical officers and 1,930 diploma clinical officers. All these interns are expected to have completed their internship by June 2024 at a total cost of Sh4.2 billion.

"The 56 days of industrial unrest by the doctors culminated into a Return-to-Work Formula agreement signed by the Government and the Union on May 8, 2024," said Nakhumicha.

According to her, the agreement contained a proposal on unlocking the stalemate around the posting of 1,210 medical interns.

"The contentious clause was compensation for the interns. Whereas KMPDU preferred that an intern be posted based on the 2017 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) rates of Sh206,400 per month, the realities of the fiscal space coupled with the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024 cannot permit this."

The government seemed to change tune, going against the signed agreement by explaining that the Employment and Labour Relations Court challenged an advisory from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), advising on a monthly stipend of Sh70,000 to facilitate the posting of all interns.

"As of today, the total number of interns awaiting posting across the cadres is 3,760 for a total budget of Sh4.8 billion. Due to the budget ceiling, the Ministry received an allocation of Sh3.7 billion in the Financial Year 2024/2025 for internship," she said.

The government now wants the medics to stop their industrial action and go back to work as they hold meetings to unlock the impasse

Nakhumicha is urging the doctors to wait for the court's direction on September 26, 2024, on the matter while expressing optimism that the gazettement of the presidential task force to address long-standing issues on human resources for health will come up with recommendations on how to deal with the internship issue permanently.