•The union on Wednesday said the one-year period agreed upon to have the staff absorbed on permanent and pensionable terms is fast approaching
•Despite that, the Ministry is yet to communicate whether the staff will be absorbed as agreed in a meeting held in Kericho during the UHC week in October
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
The Kenya Union of Clinical Officers has given the government until Friday to communicate on the way forward regarding the issue of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) staff.
The union on Wednesday said the one-year period agreed upon to have the staff absorbed on permanent and pensionable terms is fast approaching.
Despite that, the Ministry is yet to communicate whether the staff will be absorbed as agreed in a meeting held in Kericho during the UHC week in October.
“We agreed and signed under the Kericho declaration that after one year, they should be absorbed yet it is less than three months to the end of the contract but there is no information,” KUCO Chairperson Peterson Wachira said.
He noted that what has been witnessed is a state of confusion between the Council of Governors and the Ministry of Health relating to the matter.
“If we do not get this clarity by this Friday then on Monday we are going to mobilise the UHC staff to come to Nairobi and demand for those answers themselves,” he said.
The national and county governments had recently been engrossed in a standoff over the fate of the 9,000 health workers contracted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lot was hired in April 2020 on a three-year contract to boost the response to the pandemic as well as the smooth implementation of UHC.
They were reportedly being paid half what their colleagues under permanent and pensionable terms take home.
In September, Health CS Susan Nakhumicha called on the UHC staff to be patient as the Public Service Commission works out modalities to ensure they are absorbed on permanent and pensionable terms.
The initiation agreement with the Council of Governors and the PSC was to renew the contract for another three years since their services were still needed.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
The CS revealed that after writing to PSC, it was agreed that the contracts be renewed for another year as the plans to have them put on permanent and pensionable terms are finalised.
“We wrote to PSC as a ministry and they have responded and said the best thing is to make them permanent but before that their contracts be renewed for one year as we work on their permanent terms so they should have patience and wait,” she said.
In October, the Ministry of Health committed to creating a path in eight months, towards full employment of all current contract medical staff.
More than 10,000 medical workers, including the 8,500 UHC healthcare workers in the country are employed under contracts.
In a deal with health unions, the ministry said it will craft a path to their full employment.
“We hereby commit to work together to facilitate absorption and mainstreaming of national government contract staff (including Covid- 19/UHC staff), and engaging Council of Governors to develop a clear plan for absorbing other contract staff,” the two sides said in a deal.
The deal was signed by Head of Public Service Felix Koskei and signed by health officials including Health CS Susan Nakhumicha.
The agreement follows a series of meetings convened by CS Nakhumicha and Koskei in early October.
The final agreement was signed during Mashujaa Day celebrations, but the magnitude of those commitments is only beginning to emerge.
All registered unions representing health workers signed the agreement.
The union is now concerned that as the one-year contract nears the expiry period, they are yet to get any information from the government on how the matter will be resolved once and for all.
KUCO further wants interns to be posted with immediate effect.
"We have been urging the ministry to take deliberate measures to ensure that this backlog is sorted but it is taking too long, the ministry is not offering solutions," Wachira said.
"We are also going to ask them to come for the same from the ministry because it seems now we have been unable to reach an agreement on when to post these interns."
He noted that the current batch is yet to be posted yet another one will be due for posting in July, raising concern on whether the ministry will be able to clear the backlog as the interns continue to languish at home for almost a year.