Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia: Unit will be ready in the next one month. PHOTO | FILE
Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia on Thursday ruled out the creation of a Health Service Commission, saying such a move would be unconstitutional.
Mr Macharia said the government instead was working on a special administrative unit dedicated to tackling health workers’ issues.
The unit will be established within the Public Service Commission (PSC) to address the workers’ issues.
He said the unit, expected to be ready in a month’s time, was a viable option and would handle issues such as promotion, training and transfers that the health workers have been grappling with.
Mr Macharia said the Council of Governors, ministry representatives, the PSC and other relevant stakeholders would be involved to ensure the idea is universally acceptable.
The Senate and governors have rejected proposals by the medics union to have health care revert to the national government, saying it would frustrate devolution.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has been adamant that mishandling of workers’ affairs is to blame for the recurrent strikes.
It remains to be seen whether the county chiefs will agree to cede some of their powers over the medics to the new unit.
He was accompanied by the director of medical services, Dr Nicholas Muraguri, and Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board CEO Daniel Yumbya
Mr Macharia revealed that the ministry held negotiations with the PSC and the head of Public Service, Mr Joseph Kinyua, and agreed that such a unit would offer long-term solutions to the health crisis.
He downplayed claims that there were plans to return health functions to the national government.
The challenges being experienced were due to the uncertainty that health workers felt when they heard they could work under counties, he said.
Teething problems
Some of the grievances of the health workers include salary delays, career stagnation due to lack of promotions as well as challenges of transfers to other counties.
KMPDU chairman Samuel Oroko said they are not opposed to devolution but the split and transfer of the HR function to the county governments.
“The turbulence in the human resource management was expected. It will be naïve to assume that the teething problems could not have been there in such a dramatic move to devolve staff,” Mr Macharia said.
The Senators insisted that the national government must be committed to working with governors to ensure the gains under devolution are not derailed due to HR issues that have threatened services at the counties.
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