Health unions have faulted the move by Nakuru County to terminate the contracts of close to 550 health workers.
The unions instead want the county to ensure all the affected workers are absorbed to ensure Kenyans continue to receive healthcare services.
The unions, in a statement, said accessibility to health services has worsened since the public health sector is unable to meet the health demands of Kenyans.
They said the county is letting off the workers without putting in place mechanisms to address the gap they leave behind.
“While we don’t support hospital-based contracts, the county should consider absorbing all health workers who now face dismissal to ensure uninterrupted delivery of health services,” the joint statement reads.
“Lack of adequate staffing of health professionals in their right mix ranks high among the myriad of challenges contributing to the health system failure,” it adds.
According to the unions, the country has in the last decades failed to establish a framework that would ensure commensurate staffing of health workers with the population growth.
They said despite the current administration promising to employ 20,000 health workers to bridge the shortage gap as a road to the realisation of UHC, that is yet to happen.
Nakuru County government last month terminated the contracts of over 500 technical staff in the Department of Health.
The most affected are registered nurses and clinical officers in the purge which affected a total of 538 workers as the County Public Service Board promised to re-advertise the positions.
In a move that has raised concern and fear among workers in the health sector, Nakuru County Referral and Teaching Hospital lost 249 staff while 150 workers from Naivasha sub-county have been affected.
Nakuru Senator Tabitha Karanja has termed the move as 'unfair and inhuman', warning of looming deaths and suffering if the county sends the workers home, following the end of their contracts.
The unions comprise nurses, clinical officers, lab technologists and dieticians.
