The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has said that they will resort to a strike over the unsuccessful implementation of the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
According to KMPDU Secretary General Dr Davji Bhimji, the stakeholders involved in the signing of the agreement had failed to meet issues that they had raised.
Bhimji also said that the management and governance structure of the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) also requires revamping.
According to Dr. Atellah, the agreement was signed after a prolonged strike but has currently been disregarded together with their grievances which included salary increments, posting of interns, creation of call rooms, employment of more doctors and provision of working tools.
“The KMPDU signed and registered CBA 2017-2021. This CBA was the result of a very protracted and painful 100 days’ strike. However, it seems that the Ministry of Health, the County Governments and the parastatals in healthcare have forgotten that period,” Atellah said.
He said that the union will engage all stakeholders for a period of month to negotiate for a new cycle of the 2021-2025 CBA.
“We are going to embark on an intense month period of engagement with all stakeholders as a reminder that the CBA is alive while negotiating a new cycle of CBA 2021-2025. You can be sure that those engagements include all options available to unions including an industrial action. Let the country be on notice,” he added.
According to Bhimji, medical training facilities in the country have increased yet the number of graduate doctors taken in by the government remains low and several doctors that have since retired or resigned have yet been replaced.
He further said medical training facilities in Kenya have increased, with nine universities offering medicine courses, yet the number of graduate doctors being absorbed by the government remains low.
The union also shouldered that the budgetary allocations to county governments be reviewed and increased to address majority of the issues that cause industrial strain between the health workforce and employers across all counties.
