• Union will create a fund for personal protective equipment for its members
• It has allocated Sh3 million from its internal resources as a seed amount.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
Doctors want the government to create a Sh3 billion occupational injury and disease fund to cover frontline health workers.
The medics through the Kenya Medical Pharmacists and Dentists Union yesterday said doctors and other front line workers have been adversely affected in the line of duty.
They said over 100 doctors in the US, Italy, France, Germany and other countries have died and there is, therefore, urgent need to develop a comprehensive compensation package.
The union has in the meantime resolved to create a Caring For Carers Fund to enable the union procure and supply personal protective equipment for its members.
The union has allocated Sh3 million from its internal resources as a seed amount. A committee has been appointed immediately for the management of the fund.
“We welcome all organisations and Kenyans of goodwill to support this initiative. The audits of these funds will be made public,” the union chairman Oroko Obegi said.
“In the meantime, we call upon the Ministry of Health to share information on the availability and distribution of available PPE in the country to inform preparedness and allay the anxiety of all health workers.”
They further want all development monies to be reallocated to healthcare to develop the capacity of the health sector in combating the Covid-19 pandemic.
This help will range from human resources recruitment and deployment to infrastructure and equipment for isolation centres and critical care units across the country.
The union further wants all doctors out of employment to be employed, adding that the union’s database has 1,000 doctors across the three cadres of pharmacists, dentists and medical doctors.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed our weakest link on the human resources needs, employment and deployment. The KMPDU position on management and distribution of the scarce human resources for health has been that the country needs a Health Services Commission,” Obegi said.
The union chair said the county-national governments' conflict in recruiting health workers to combat Covid-19 greatly highlights this.
They have thus appealed to the technical committee drafting the referendum bill to include the HSC by Kenyans in their BBI submissions.
The KMPDU is also calling upon all employers to immediately resolve all pending disputes to make all health workers available to treat Kenyans.
“The pandemic upon us has had a big effect on the social and economic impact on our lives," Obegi said.
"In the spirit of collaboration and for the sake of humanity in this crisis, Kirinyaga and Laikipia counties should as a matter of urgency reinstate the mistreated health workers and pay all their withheld salaries.”
Taita Taveta county is also expected to reinstate the illegally withheld allowances for the doctors on study leave.
The KMPDU has cautioned all employers and administration from threatening workers during this time, adding that as a union, they are not interested in labour disputes at this time but shall not hesitate to champion against the violation of employment and labour rights.
“The pandemic of Covid-19 clearly highlights the need to immediately pay emergency call allowance to all doctors in administrative and policy at the Health ministry, county governments and universities and teaching hospitals,” the union said.
They said that in the of their mandate, these doctors are always being called at whichever hour of the day to respond to the ever-emerging demands of health.