A section of the Nyanza region risks being thrown into a serious health crisis as disgruntled health workers strike over key demands including salary arrears and sufficient protection as they fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
Unless county governments speedily stem the untimely industrial action, it will throw into oblivion efforts and investments into the Covid-19 fight in three counties amid increasing community infections.
Doctors in Siaya County have issued a seven-day notice and intend to down their tools on Monday, just a week after their counterparts in Homa Bay County.
Kisii County’s health workers are planning to strike on Tuesday but Governor James Ongwae promised on Friday to ensure they are paid by next week.
The medics have a litany of grievances, ranging from late salaries, delayed promotions and insufficient supply of PPEs.
Local officials of the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KPMDU) accuse Siaya of reneging on its pledge to promote the doctors and implement a Collective Bargaining Agreement.
On July 24, the union wrote a protest letter to the county, accusing Health executive Dorothy Owino of being behind attempts to frustrate implementation of their demands.
"It is a top priority issue which the county government and the respective unions are addressing," she said without giving details.
Siaya has confirmed 55 Covid-19, one of the patients being a member of Governor Cornel Rasanga’s cabinet.
Education executive Mary Olute tested positive on Monday and was airlifted from Bondo Sub-county Hospital to Nairobi on Wednesday evening for medical attention.
Further, the Nation established that a senior doctor at the county referral hospital tested positive on Thursday.
Patients wait for doctors at Homa Bay County Referral Hospital
In Homa Bay, patients stuck in public health facilities are desperate as the strike is on and the health workers are adamant.
At the county referral hospital, five wards were closed as patients were transferred from the facility to private hospitals following the industrial action by all healthcare workers in the county.
Patients who were admitted in ward one, two, five and eight and the maternity unit had all left by Wednesday afternoon to seek services elsewhere.
Those who could not afford transfers moved to new wards at the facility where more patients are still admitted.
The closure of the wards is a reflection of the impact of the strike that entered its fifth day on Friday.
In the empty wards at Homa Bay’s hospitals, workers have already collected bed sheets, mosquito nets and mattresses for safe keeping.
The materials are kept in different corners within the wards, perhaps to save time putting them back in case the strike is called off and patients start streaming back into the government hospitals.
Doors in nurses’ cubes within the closed wards have all been shut and nurses’ tables emptied to indicate that no services are being offered.
At the pediatric ward, alphabet charts and pictures of animals, once concealed by patients’ belongings, can now be clearly seen from outside.
Health executive Richard Muga said on Tuesday that salaries have been delayed due to the late disbursement of funds from the national government.
Union officials representing doctors, nurses, clinical officers, laboratory technicians, dentists, nutritionists and pharmacists instructed their members not to attend to any patient until their grievances are addressed.
But as this happens, private hospitals in Homa Bay are reaping from increasing admissions.
Most patients from the county referral hospital have moved to St Paul Mission and St Lawrence hospitals while those who were at Rachuonyo South Sub-county Hospital have moved to Matata Hospital.
Patients from vulnerable families, which cannot afford to pay high bills in private facilities, are looking to doctors from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) who have taken over operations at the health facility.
Reporting by Dickens Wasonga, George Odiwuor and Benson Ayienda
