•She noted that pregnant mothers who cannot afford services in private maternity facilities are delivering under tough conditions
•She further raised concern that patients suffering from chronic ailments such as cancer have continued to suffer due to lack of specialists to attend to them
Image: FILE
Githunguri Member of Parliament Gathoni Wamuchomba has called on the government to ensure the issue of doctors' strike is sorted.
Speaking on Spice FM on Monday, Wamuchomba said it is the poor Kenyans who have continued to bear the brunt of the strike.
She noted that pregnant mothers who cannot afford services in private maternity facilities are delivering under tough conditions.
Wamuchomba further raised concern that patients suffering from chronic ailments such as cancer have continued to suffer due to a lack of specialists to attend to them.
"Does it mean those of us who cannot get to a nice maternity hospital or a privately operated maternity facility should continue getting our babies on floors of public hospitals," Wamuchomba paused.
"Should we continue languishing in agony and pain just because there is no money to pay doctors?"
Wamuchomba further noted that the government was giving more weight to affordable housing at the expense of other matters of public concern including the doctors' strike.
"What is our priority, is it affordable housing or is it our medication? Is it our dying cancer patients or is it affordable housing? Our priorities are wrong and we must go back to the drawing board," she said.
On Sunday, President Ruto said that doctors need to understand that the country cannot afford to increase the salaries of its workers.
President Ruto stressed that the county must manage its available resources instead of resorting to borrowing to pay wages.
The Head of State said the government had offered to pay a stipend of Sh70,000 each for 1,500 interns for one year after which they would be employed.
"That is what we can offer and we have availed resources to have all the 1500 intern doctors absorbed at once", said Ruto.
In response, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) SG Davji Atellah said they will not backtrack on the issue of salaries.
Atellah stated that what they're asking for now is what was agreed upon in the 2017 CBA after compromising with the government's requests at that time.
"We can not backtrack on our salaries to exploitation in the name of the wage bill. The doctors' salary is anchored on CBA, and it is important like the salary of any Kenyan," Atellah said.
"To control the wage bill, it cannot only be the doctors being the target for wage bill reduction," he added.