Nurses strike: Doctors now issue 7-day ultimatum

Doctors have issued the government a seven-day ultimatum to resolve the ongoing nurses' strike, warning that they will also down their tools in solidarity if the dispute remains unresolved.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) noted that the strike, which has now stretched beyond 40 days, has left patients without care that no other cadre of health worker can provide.

"In the ICU (Intensive Care Unit), in the wards, in the HDU (High Dependency Unit), only the nurses can offer that type of care," KMPDU Secretary-General Davji Atellah told journalists on Monday. 

The union said the situation had moved beyond an ordinary labour dispute, and accused the government of inaction that has disrupted essential health services across the country.

"Patients who need nursing care cannot get it. Yet nursing care is very essential in healthcare," KMPDU said.

The union said the extended absence of nurses had also placed doctors under growing strain, warning that hospitals were becoming unsafe without adequate nursing support.

"Doctors cannot work without nurses. Doctors are now overburdened. We cannot continue like this," KMPDU said.

The union also linked the prolonged strike to a rise in preventable deaths and complications in hospitals.

"There are many deaths now in our hospitals. There are conditions that have worsened. There are many preventable complications that we cannot normalise, which could have been stopped," it said.

"If the strike does not end in the next 7 days, then we as doctors are also going on strike because we cannot work or substitute the nurses role."

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