Every civilised society is judged by the way it manages its health services.
The Ministry of Health should make every effort possible to avert a looming strike the doctors union has announced.
Ministry of Health officials, representatives of counties and the union, have failed to reach an agreement ever since the union reported a dispute in November 2021.
A high level meeting between the parties, held in early January 2023, resolved that a pay dispute dating back to a 2017-2021 deal be completed by early March and the negotiations for new perks for 2021-2025 be initiated in February. None of the issues agreed have been resolved.
The team also agreed intern doctors (fresh graduates from university) be absorbed and compensated. That too is pending.
Only months ago, MoH sparked off a heated debate when it emerged that ministry chiefs had hatched a plan to block Kenyan doctors from moving abroad in search of better working conditions.
The ministry in essence wants a licence to treat doctors shoddily confident that doctors are the mercy of ministry bureaucrats.
Taxpayers spend a fortune to train doctors. The public that desperately needs medical attention in public hospitals are staring at a long and painful strike if the bosses at MoH do not as a matter of urgency act to settle the dispute.
Quote of the day: "Whatever may happen to you, remember always: Don't adjust! Revolt against reality."
Mordechai Anielewicz
The leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was born on May 8, 1919
