The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union has welcomed the government's plan to deploy 800 intern doctors.
However, they said an acute shortage of doctors would persist in the counties.
Health CS Susan Wafula said the interns will be deployed starting next week.
“We are deploying the intern doctors because we are committed to delivering quality healthcare to all Kenyans,” Wafula said on Tuesday in Eldoret.
During a tour of the Moi Referral Hospital, Wafula also met with KMPDU North Rift branch officials led by chairman Dr Darwin Ambuk.
Dr Ambuka expressed concern that the shortage of doctors was adversely affecting medical services at hospitals in the region.
“We welcome the move to deploy the 800 doctor interns for a start but that is not enough and we hope more will be employed within the shortest time possible,” Dr Ambuka said.
The country has more than 5,000 unemployed doctors and Dr Ambuka said they want President William Ruto’s administration to prioritize healthcare and ensure that all hospitals can serve Kenyans effectively.
Dr Ambuka said there was a burning shortage of doctors in the country but the situation is worse in North Rift counties.
West Pokot county for example they said has 38 doctors serving a population of more than 621,000 people meaning the doctor-population ratio stands at 1 to 17,000 which is way too far from the WHO standard of 1 to 1,000.
For example, they said, a county like West Pokot had only one gynaecologist and no anesthesiologist.
Turkana has only two gynaecologists, no ENT surgeon and no radiologist.
The country is struggling with one of the highest maternal mortality rates at 342 per 10,000 which KMPDU says is far above the recommended rate as per UN SDGs of 70 to 100,000 live births.
The KMPDU officials said most of the challenges in the health sector are a result of poor policies, priorities and underfunding.
Kenya they said was a signatory of the Abuja Declaration of 2001 where 189 heads of state pledged to allocate at least 15 per cent of their annual budgets to healthcare.
Dr Ambuka said while nations like Rwanda had implemented the declaration, Kenya was still at about 5 per cent.
KMPDU said the country couldn't achieve UHC without the provision of adequate resources to the health sector.
Dr Ambuka said it was not reasonable for the government to bring in doctors from Cuba and pay them heavily yet the same money can be used to hire many local medics.
Wafula said the ministry was keen to resolve issues in the sector through dialogue and not engage in confrontations with labour unions over strikes that do not help to improve the situation.
