Nurses in public hospitals and dispensaries in Lamu county continued with their normal duties yesterday, despite the nationwide health workers' strike.
However, some reported to work late.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists' Union announced they would skip work from today as the government has not met their demands for better pay, promotions, hiring more staff and better working conditions.
Patients who arrived early at the Lamu County King Fahad Hospital waited for an unusually longer period before being attended to.
The nurses were on go-slow were awaiting an alert on the next move from the hospital management, who were in a meeting early yesterday.
The meeting between the county health bosses and the nurses seemed to have been successful as the nurses resumed normal duties shortly after.
“I have been here since 7am this morning. It's over four hours now without being attended to and that’s not normal. We heard rumours that nurses will be striking but we are glad that they have started attending to people now,” patient Aisha Bwanamkuu said.
Lamu Health director Mohamed Abubakar said county nurses will not take part in the nationwide strike.
He denied a go-slow at the county hospital and said officials have not received any complaints from patients.
“We have over 200 nurses in the county and I want to assure all that they are working...Any changes will be communicated in due course,” Abubakar said.
He said, however, there is a high possibility of doctors in Lamu to join the nationwide strike.
“We have observed that many doctors are not at their stations,” Abubakar added.
Lamu Nurses Association chairman Julius Njogu said nurses will not join the ongoing strike as he county government has addressed nurses' needs.
At Mpeketoni and Faza hospitals, doctors and nurses treated patients.