Why doctors have a right to go on strike
Some of the doctors in Embu County, who have threatened to go on strike over poor working conditions, during a meeting in Embu town on September 1, 2020.
Kenyan doctors on November 15, 2020 issued a 21-day countrywide strike notice. What they are asking for is really just the bare minimum given the amount of hours they put in every day, especially during this period when the entire world is in a public health crisis.
For avoidance of doubt here is a breakdown of all the things doctors are asking for: The provision of standard and adequate PPEs in all healthcare facilities across the country; comprehensive medical covers for all doctors; workman's compensation for all doctors and healthcare workers - this is basically compensation for any injuries sustained in the course of duty; the enhancement of the existing risk allowance; dedicated healthcare facilities for all healthcare workers in all counties; the employment of 2,000 doctors out of employment and revision of contracts for the existing doctors to permanent and pensionable positions; and the establishment of a constitutional Health Service Commission.
Let us face it; most of the things the doctors are demanding are not new to us or the government. Remember when doctors went on strike for 100 days between December 2016 and March 2017? The issues the collective bargaining agreement was to address included a review of the risk allowance, employment of new doctors, compensation of doctors and healthcare workers, among others.
According to the President's most recent State of the Nation address, Universal Health Care (which seeks to eradicate the ‘poverty of dignity’ and transition our nation into an era where no Kenyan should be forced to sell their land in order to settle their medical bills) is still a promise Kenyans have to keep hoping is kept.
To quote the former KMPDU secretary general Dr Ouma Oluga, “there cannot be a separation between the rights of patients and the rights of doctors.” Words that seem quite fundamental in light of the new developments by the ministry of Health stating that the National Health Insurance Fund will no longer cover Covid-19 treatment, whether in public or private hospitals.
With Covid-19 cases rising by the minute we must all begin asking ourselves difficult questions. When will we stop burying our heads in the sand? If the government is not protecting the Kenyans unable to afford the cost of Covid-19 treatment or the doctors helping us fight it, who are they protecting? Doctors have lost 30 of their own to this pandemic, 10 out of those being senior specialists.
It is quite scary that doctors who are supposed to know what to do when it comes to combating coronavirus have no way of getting treatment should they contract it themselves despite being at the highest risk of contraction. Hopefully this scenario is scary enough for us to support them as they take this fight to the streets.
Bessie Sarowiwa, Mombasa
