Doctors’ strike: The demanding call for medical interns
Medical interns camp outside Afya House, the Ministry of Health headquarters, in Nairobi on February 12.
What you need to know:
- An eight-hour meeting failed to hammer a deal on the 1,200 medical interns, and what they are supposed to be paid in service as they await a full license to practice.
- Medical interns, their remuneration and terms of services, are the one of the biggest reasons for the ongoing doctors’ strike.
They are the backbone of the healthcare system—they make up for all the staff shortages in public hospitals, are on call 24 hours a day, and provide about 70 per cent of all services in those facilities.
Now, medical interns, their remuneration and terms of services, are the one of the biggest reasons for the ongoing doctors’ strike.
Thursday’s eight-hour meeting led by Chief of and Head of Public Service, Mr Felix Koskei, failed to hammer a deal on the 1,200 medical interns, and what they are supposed to be paid in service as they await a full license to practice.
The medical internship is a mandatory phase for all trained doctors before being licensed, but they perform majority of the roles a licensed one does, but only under supervision.
The young medics who are always on the frontline of response at medical facilities often deal with the backlog of emergency cases and what would also be termed as standard medical care.
As the doctor's strike entered its 9th day yesterday, these interns and student doctors enthusiastically took to the streets hoping that their grievances would eventually be met by the government. The key issue at hand is posting of the 1,200 inters across the county.
It has emerged that the government that these young doctors are looking up to for a solution have no clue as to why doctors under the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentist Union (KMPDU) are up in arms over the posting of interns or what exactly medical interns do.
KMPDU on the other hand has relentlessly fought for the posting of interns.
The Nation spoke to two interns, about exactly what their jobs entail and they said they work beyond the 40-hour timeline, often without breaks, and sometimes being delegated duties that they were relatively inexperienced to handle.
Dr Benjamin Nyariki, a medical officer intern, who works at a Mission hospital said that in a day, he arrives at the hospital before 7am and some days before 6am to see patients before the consultants come at 8 or 8:30am. Ward rounds start by 9 am and run through 1pm or as late as 2 pm.
“Thereafter, I have to make follow ups: order lab and imaging tests and make sure they are done, update families on their relative's status and do an exit round to ensure everything planned for the patients in the morning has been done. This ends at 5pm and sometimes later than this,” he said.
He went on: “If I am on call on a specific day, I will continue working (review patients and admit any new patient through the night until the following morning). I will pre-round on my patients the following morning to present to the consultant the next day like any other normal day. This cycle continues all week.”
On weekends, all the interns report to work on Saturday morning to check on the patients and leave when the plans are done.
“This is around noon on Saturday. If I am on call on a weekend, I will continue working till Monday after the plans for Monday are done (this means working from Saturday morning till Monday afternoon). If I am not on a weekend call, this is the only time I get to rest,” the intern doctor explained.
“With this cycle, is there time to do other things? No. I have only been home twice nine months into internship. Am I married? No, I don't even have enough time for a relationship. We treat patients and God heals them. Who cares about my emotional being when I certify three deaths in 24hrs, despite best efforts?” asked Mr Nyariki.
Society demands a lot from a doctor (this weight is more at the internship year) and sometimes forgets that they are also human, the intern doctor says.
Mr Victor Muchiri, medical officer intern ,on the other hand also termed his experience as quite tough.
“Being the first one to handle patients at the hospital and also being understaffed, we do a lot of work as medical officers, sometimes we work more than 24 hours. We also do night calls, sometimes about three or four in a week and if you are understaffed, it is worse.”
“As medical officer interns, we are usually the ones who give the care to the patients. We admit them and discharge them, in the clinics we are the ones who see them, sometimes, with the support of our seniors. We are the primary caregivers in a public hospital, and we are the ones who ensure that the patient has gotten the right access to medical care , and if the intern is not available to do that, then our health in the public hospital is going to go down,” he said.
“My expectation after internship is to find a job. Before, the government used to employ us, but not any more,” he added.
