Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli has weighed in on the call by health unions to form a Health Service Commission.
Atwoli on Tuesday supported the formation of the commission to oversee the human resource as well as end the challenges such as industrial disharmony that have been affecting the health sector.
Speaking during a consultative forum between workers' unions and the NHIF in Kisumu, Atwoli further said counties have demonstrated their inability to manage the affairs of the health workers and said it is time they reverted back to the national government.
According to Atwoli, failure by the counties to effectively manage the affairs of the health workers has resulted in perennial problems of strikes that have continued to hamper service delivery to Kenyans.
“County governments must respect our doctors, to train a doctor is not easy, to train a doctor is very expensive and when it comes to payment they kick them left and right,” he said.
“We need to have a meeting with the Head of State so that doctors are taken back by the national government,” he added.
In a meeting between the doctors union and the President at State House in February, it was agreed that there will be further consultations on how to initiate the process of forming the Health Service Commission (HSC) as has been demanded by the unions.
“As a union, we fully support this idea because we believe that Kenyans deserve to get uninterrupted services free from mismanagement by the county governments,” KMPDU SG Davji Atellah said.
The unions have been fighting for a centralized body anchored in the Constitution that would handle all matters within healthcare as a solution to the problems facing the health sector in the country.
