Doctors demonstrate in Nairobi on January 31, 2017. The medics sought the intervention of the National Assembly in their pay dispute with the government. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO.
What you need to know:
The doctors want Parliament to create the proposed Health Services Authority (HSA) to take up some of the devolved roles.
Such an agency would handle the human resources aspect of health challenges, the doctors said.
They want MPs to enact laws to create a special grading structure “considering the specialised function offered by doctors.”
Doctors have sought the intervention of the National Assembly in their latest effort to resolve their national strike that entered two months on Tuesday.
Through a petition by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) secretary-general Ouma Oluga, the doctors want Parliament to create the proposed Health Services Authority (HSA) to take up some of the devolved roles.
Such an agency would handle the human resources aspect of health challenges, including deployment, training, discipline, remuneration, staffing and transfers, the doctors said.
“The petitioners are concerned that both levels of government have consistently refused to acknowledge the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) entered into between the doctors’ union and the government in 2013,” Mr Oluga says in the petition.
“Additionally, both levels of government have done little to address the CBA despite numerous avenues pursued by their union to address the matter.”
The doctors have accused both the national and county governments of resorting to courts and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission “instead of pursuing collaborative measures to negotiate an agreeable return-to-work formula”.
They want MPs to enact laws to create a special grading structure “considering the specialised function offered by doctors.”
“The petitioners pray that the National Assembly participates in the realisation of allocation of 15 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to health through the annual budgetary cycles and adds its voice in the calling for the government to honour the doctor’s Collective Bargaining Agreement of 2013,” the petitioners said.
Mr Oluga and other KMPDU officials were present in Parliament when the petition was read out by Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso.
They asked the National Assembly to put in place the necessary legislative process towards releasing emoluments under the Doctors’ CBA of 2013 as conditional grants from the national government to the counties specifically targeted to doctors, among other requests.
Dr Laboso directed two committee of Parliament to urgently investigate the issues raised with a view to resolving the stalemate and directed the Health and Labour and Social Welfare committee to listen to the doctors concerns.
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