Clinicians are demanding rehabilitation services for healthcare workers saying that deaths and suicide rates among them are on a worrying trend.
So worrying is the trend that nine clinical officers have died due to drug and substance abuse as well as mental health issues.
It is feared that the numbers among the entire health workforce might be higher as the nine cases are among the clinicians alone.
The Kenya Clinical officers Association has raised alarm that in the past six months, four clinical officers have lost their lives due to suicide with four others dying in the last two months as a result of drug and substance abuse.
Association's secretary general Joseph Chebii said on Thursday that the problem has affected service delivery among the healthcare workers with reports showing that some of them are unable to go to work due to intoxication.
“The challenge is actually spread across the country. It is only that we have managed to pick just a few that we have randomly buried,” Chebii said.
“In our reports we are getting that we have a number of workers who are not even able to go to work and we don’t have rehabilitation services. We don’t have the psychosocial support systems in place,” he added.
The worrying trend among the health workforce has been attributed to exhaustion and burnout due to long working hours occasioned by the low patient to healthcare workers ratio in the country.
The SG has expressed concern that despite being a worrying trend, the problem has not been given the attention it deserves as no structures and mechanisms have been put in place to address issues of mental health.
As a result, the mental issues degenerate into drug and substance abuse and lead to eventual suicides and deaths among healthcare workers.
“We call upon the government to address these issues before they get out of hand. We recommend that the counties and the national government create resources to establish rehabilitation sites to address this menace that is causing a lot of losses and also affecting service delivery,” Chebii said.
This comes even as the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers Clinicians called on the President to constitute a National Joint Taskforce on Health to look into issues affecting the health sector in the country.
The union wants the taskforce constituted to undertake an evaluation of the last decade since the devolution of health, with a view to recommending solutions that will put health back on the progress towards attainment of Vision 2030.
The union in their latest call has recommended that the taskforce provides a framework for the establishment of a Health Commission for the management of human resources for health without undermining devolution.
“While some counties have posted an improvement in health services provision, others are still struggling and have lost hope in the delivery of quality healthcare in most spheres,” Kenya Union of Clinical officers Secretary general George Gibore said.
“As a union, we have taken note with great concern the current status and the forecast future of the health sector especially on its capacity to meet the tenets of accessibility, quality and affordability,” he added.
They want the taskforce to be composed of representatives from the Office of the President, the Ministry of Health, Council of Governors, Public Service Commission, health unions and associations.
Gibore said it is time to reflect on the challenges faced in the last 10 years of devolution, and convert the lessons learnt into opportunities to better and strengthen the health systems towards achieving UHC.
According to the union, health workers have been faced with a myriad of challenges in the last 10 years as most county governments have failed to prioritise their welfare.
-Edited by SKanyara
