John Muchere, not his real name, is battling chronic pancreatitis which has had a toll on his body, making him endure waves of biting pain attacks.
The ongoing doctors’ strike is now even worsening his ordeal.
Over the Easter holiday, the 25-year-old medicine graduate from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology needed emergency hospitalisation after he had an episode of vomiting, dehydration and pain.
Muchere, a medical intern, could not be attended to because his colleague doctors are on a strike.
The medics want the government to post medical interns.
Nurses running up down attend to him but a doctor must examine him and guide his care process.
After a long six-hour wait as he endures the writhing pain, a doctor emerges to attend to him but with much lethargy that a hand can grasp.
Muchere was later admitted at the hospital and for the seven days he stayed in the ward, he only saw a doctor twice.
Mary Wangeci has a similar story. Her situation was worsened by a delay-ridden NHIF and exhausted private insurance cover. She had been battling breast cancer and was lucky to have a good health cover provided by her job.
But after along hospitalization journey, the private cover got depleted making her family and friends efforts buoyed by NHIF to be her only hope. The doctor’s strike has worsened the pain and strained her medication journey.
She got moved to a public facility for inpatient care with numerous surgical procedures needed.
But the doctors are not there to give treatment direction, meaning that nurses cannot do much.
“The doctor’s strike is quickening my death, only making it inhumanly painful,” she said.
Wangeci, a mother of four, is now distraught, having to keep staying in the hospital surviving on the nurses’ care and crossing her the fingers that some deal will be reached to between the actors involved to see doctors back in the treatment halls.
“I had started responding well to treatment, I was sure that with sustained and close care, i could be back on my feet and soon out of here. But the strike is making me rebound and its sad,” she said.
Annete Adhiambo has the same experience, receiving minimal care while she is stuck at a public hospital in Homa Bay.
She being treated for a communicable disease which has taken a toll on her and there are only two doctors who have been giving her specialised care. But the strike has slowed things down, dimming her hope of getting back to her feet and get her fish-mongering business going.
“This doctor’s strike is only far off when you see it on TV and listen about it on radio. Our governor should find a way and save my life. She is holding key to my treatment in her hands,” she said in her plea to Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga.
The news on Monday that the strike was becoming industry-wide and full scale only added insult to injury.
Clinical officers announced on Monday that they will soon be downing their tools, joining doctors in their strike.
Doctors have been on strike since March 14 over pay and working conditions.
The Kenya Union of Clinical Officers last week issued a seven-day strike notice for their grievances to be addressed, otherwise they walk off the job until further notice.
Clinical officers’ union chairperson Peterson Wachira said on Sunday that the strike decision was necessitated by failure by the two levels of government to heed their demands despite a strike notice.
"Once we leave tonight, we will not be coming back before we get what we set out to get," Wachira said.
They are demanding that the national and county governments issue confirmation letters on permanent and pensionable terms to UHC staff hired during the Covid-19 period and to national TB programme clinicians and all members currently on contractual terms.
They also want the national government and counties to recruit more than 20,000 unemployed and qualified clinical officers to cover the existing shortage.