By Violet Grade
Clinical officers have been called upon to cease fire on the go slow as the County government works on fulfilling their grievances.
Health and Sanitation CECM Dr Andrew Wamalwa while addressing them stated that the department is working championing for the rights of each healthcare worker and such incidents drags them backwards.
“Your issues will be addressed in the rightful manner provided to drop the strike and go back to work,” he assured them.
He noted that their issues will be addressed by the end of June and called on them to go back to work.
He affirmed to them that they have staged several meetings it is being handled by the Council of Governors and the ministry of health.
“We have championed the issue of staff welfare and to the best of our ability given the resources, those working in contracts, their contracts will be converted PnP, all these are in process and by the end of june everything will fully be sorted out,”he stated.
Clinical officers demonstrated in Bungoma town and swore they won’t go back to work unless Sh.4 billion has been set aside for their long-term, pensionable employment.
The 243 clinicians in Bungoma County who are on their 60th day of strike, according to Peterson Wachira, national chairman of the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (Kuco), would not give up until they received the Sh 1 billion health risk allowance.
Doctors’ strikes, according to Wachira, are the result of the government’s inability to give the health sector priority.
They demanded that the government put an end to the discrimination they face, which entails working with people in similar conditions and for the same number of hours, seeing the same patients, but only paying them half of what they are paid for the month.
“We are not resuming work until the government ends the discrimination among its employees, and we are ready to continue with the strike until our needs are met, he stated.
According to Alias Mutai, a UHC employee in Bungoma County, there are three main points on which they have not agreed on.
Their goal is to get permanent and pensionable employment for the officers under the UHC contract. These three-year-old clinical officers receive half of the compensation that is discriminatory.
“How are we supposed to take care of patients while we are sick emotionally? We are tired of this temporary employment. If you can’t pay us, please terminate the contract. Let’s go home!” said Mutai further explained the fact that doctors lack complete health insurance and find it difficult to access care when a loved one becomes ill.
