Striking doctors have hinted at backing down on their salary demands should the government address four key public healthcare issues they raised.
Doctors’ union officials identified training, employment, staffing standards and working conditions as the issues that need to be addressed before they agree on a return-to-work formula.
“We don’t want to go back to a system where we will supervise death. We don’t want to go back and supervise death,” said Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union secretary general Ouma Oluga.
“We don’t want a situation where a doctor is given a training opportunity on the basis of tribe, so that one is released and the other one is not. These are the issues that must be addressed.”
He pleaded the medics’ case before the Senate Health committee chaired by Migori Senator Wilfred Machage on Tuesday.
Oluga said doctors were willing to climb down on their demands for the interest of the suffering Kenyans, but only if the government demonstrated willingness to also compromise.
“We are willing to compromise. It is time for a compromise but the government must also compromise,” he said. “There has been a lot of misconception and misinformation that money is the only issue we raised.”
The doctors gave the ray of hope after members of the Health Committee told them to be realistic in their demands for the fulfillment of the 2013 CBA.
Machage earlier asked them to take the government’s offer of a 40 per cent rise in their salaries.”Don’t let the 40 per cent offer go. Soften a little…have somewhere to start… it is something to start with,” he said.
He further said doctors should not be blinded by the agreement as the document is not registered.
Machage also warned that the CBA was illegal because it was signed by Mark Bor two days after he was demoted as Health Permanent Secretary. He also noted that the agreement had not been registered in court.
“Let us not be blinded by the CBA which can be contested in court and which can become a static issue and stall this process,” said the Senator.
“As an older brother, do not hang on and say that unless it is the CBA we shall not do this or that. No, [something is better than nothing].”
Nyamira Senator Kennedy Mong’are, who took part in the proceedings as a friend of the committee, accused the government of lacking goodwill to resolve the strike.
Mong’are said issues were interpreted wrongly as part of a scheme by the government and negotiating parties to paint doctors as money-greedy.
“The doctors are not looking for money for their pockets but good working conditions, the doctors have come with clean hands. The government needs to wake up and listen to the many issues doctors have raised,” he said.
Doctors dismissed concerns that Kenyans were suffering due to the strike that has lasted more than two months now. He said the “sorry situation” in public health facilities was the very reason they went on strike.
“If we go back, what will we tell them? We told them ‘wait a minute we have a father to consult’,” Oluga said.
The secretary general also argued that it was the responsibility of the employer (government), under the labour, laws, to have deposited the CBA in court
‘It is the duty of the employer to register the CBA within 14 days. The government took three months to present it in court,” he said.
“Even as we take your advice, and we will consider it favorably, take note of the pleas of doctors. They are the pleas of Kenyans,” he added in his parting shot to the committee.