Homa Bay county in talks with striking medics to end stalemate

The Médecins Sans Frontières has raised an alarm that more people may die should Homa Bay health workers continue with their strike.

The International medical humanitarian organisation said it is deeply concerned by the strike, which has lasted for 26 days.

MSF said lack of access to healthcare by residents could result in higher deaths, many of which may go unrecognised.

MSF’s head of mission Anne Cugier said the strike had come at a time when Kenya is battling with Covid-19 pandemic.  

“Emergency and lifesaving services should resume in Homa Bay urgently to alleviate suffering and preventable deaths,” Cugier said.

Cugier expressed concerns that even the isolation facilities set up for Covid-19 treatment have been closed, despite the county having 47 cases of Covid-19.

“With the impact of Covid-19, mortality rates have increased as people have stopped going to hospital and those who do, go too late when they are in very critical state,” Cugier said.

The organization is concerned that Homa Bay has one of the highest rate of HIV prevalence in the country.

Therefore, failure to acquire Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and advanced HIV opportunistic infections also contribute to increased morbidity and mortality rate in the county.

“The ongoing strike can make us stare at a crisis and major drawbacks in the gains already made in reducing preventable deaths resulting from HIV,” Cugier added.

Cugier said prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, mortality rates at the Homa Bay County Referral hospital adult medical wards stood at 15 per cent.

Close to half of the patients were dying within the first 24 hours of admission.

MSF came in Homa Bay in 1997 and currently supports HIV services in 30 public health facilities.

It focuses on improving the holistic management and follow-up of patients with advanced HIV.

However, Homa Bay health executive Richard Muga said they were in dialogue with the health workers to reach a consensus on how to resume work.

In their talks, Muga said they plan to pay the medics their salary and allowances for July before September 4.

He said they have arranged with local banks to be paying the medics through overdrafts and repay the banks once they get funds to avoid delay.

“The county government is making arrangements to pay the medics their July salaries. We’re going on with talks and I am optimistic that we are going to agree soon,” Muga said.

More than 4000 Homa Bay medics went strike on August 3 after they complained of delayed salary payments, failure to remit statutory deductions and poor working environment.

The medics want the employer to pay them before fifth of every month.

They also accused the county government of failure to provide them with adequate protective gears to battle Covid-19.

But on Friday, Homa Bay’s secretary for Kenya Union of Clinical Officers Philip Mbom said they have listed some issues that the employer must address before they return to work.

According to Mbom, they want the county government to withdraw a case it filed in Employment and Labor Relations Court over their strike.

They also want to get assured of prompt salary payment and remittance of deductions.

“The employer should clear all salary arrears including the one for August because we’re entering September. We want enough PPEs to prevent us from possible contracting the virus,” Mbom said.

Edited by EKibii